NYC WALK

It looks like the event raised a little over $20,000. Not bad for a first time event and I hope that next year it will be even better.

It was decided that the dental students that helped run the event would keep $4,000 of the funds raised to help pay their expenses to go to a meeting of the National Dental Students Asociation. At this meeting, it is hoped that these students will inspire other chapters at other dental schools to have walks of their own next year. If next year there are lets say 4 schools doing this, and then more each year, this could turn into a fantastic source of funds for the OCF.

RELAY FOR LIFE

I am now one week away from the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event and everything is falling into place. Thanks to Brian, I have two phenomenal banners to use, with the OCF logo prominently displayed and the message of "early detection" cannot be missed. He has provided me with brochures, mirrors and other important record keeping and legal papers needed. My local dental supply company is providing me with many of the other items needed in order to run an oral cancer screening event.

The local representative from ViziLite has volunteered to be there all day and help with the distribution of information. One of my partners, two of my hygienists and several other staff members will be there helping, too.

I'm praying for good weather and hoping for a great turnout. I'll let everyone know how this works out and will be taking pictures for Brian to post on this website.

Jerry

Yeah, Jerry and fellow walkers Way to go. Amy

Way to go!!! OCF can use all the tax free donations we can generate. $16,000.000 helps a ton. Hoping this year is a banner year for donations.

Good luck on your walk Jerry.

Danny Boy

Brian,

My husband (Jon) and I just helped and participated in our first Relay for Life here in Lynchburg, VA last week. We raised $4,400 and were proud of that. Our team is WONDERFUL and is planning several fundraisers throughout the upcoming year. We were first in money raised at over $20,000. Lynchburg raised $180,000 in all. We absolutely loved this event and will be extremely active each year now.

To the point....we were upset that we saw nothing about oral cancer or head & neck cancer. It was just after the relay that I learned our colors are burgundy and creme. I ordered some stuff from OCF for Fathers Day. Jon kept griping at the commercials for all these other cancers with colors.....he wanted colors too. Anyway, for our walk next year could we get some signs from the foundation to post around the track and at our campsite? I'd like to educate "the locals" of these cancers as well.

Any ideas or help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! We've already received donations for next May's walk!

Ann

Hi Ann,

First of all, welcome to the OCF and I hope that you and Jon will take advantage of the many resources that are available to you here.

I'm going to take the liberty to answer some of your questions addressed to Brian and I'm sure you will hear from him, too. My wife and I have been involved with the Relay for life for 5 years. The first 4 years we raised money for the American Cancer Society. After I developed oral cancer we found out that they do not contribute any resources to the OCF and in fact don't seem to do too much (if anything at all) for oral cancer. We then decided to raise money for the OCF instead. As you can see above, we were involved in the NYC Walk and I'm proud to say that we raised $2,000 of the $20,000 that was received.

Last year I had commited to doing Oral Cancer Screenings at the Relay and I did, on this past June 3rd. I noticed as I walked around the track that there was no mention of Oral Cncaer on any of their signs. Many other. "well known" cancers were on their signs. To say the least, I was very bothered by this. I intend to continue doing these Oral Cancer Screenings in the future as a public service and as a way to get the name of the Oral Cancer Foundation out to the public.

I have no intention of raising any money directly for the ACS in the future, unless they become more supportive of us.

I hope that you, Jon and your family are successful in beating this disease and the word recurrence never has to be discussed.

Jerry

Well, I wish to be diplomatic here, so I will start by saying that ACS is a great organization that does lots of good in the world of cancer. Given the millions of dollars they have in their budget to do things though, this you would expect to be a given. They also have the world's largest volunteer basis, upwards of 2 million plus volunteers help them each year. So with that kind of support, and that kind of $, you can do amazing things, and if you are not something is wrong. This includes hiring professional fundraisers and spending a lot of what comes in to bring in even more. In non-profit terms this is

Thank you for the informative reply. I have been extremely passionate of informing others of oral, head & neck cancers. We were approached to join a Relay team by a a coworker and we agreed coming right off of treatments and surgery. We wanted to "make a difference", as I'm sure everyone does once going through an ordeal as this. Ofcourse we had the best intentions, thinking we were helping those who have survived or passed from an oral cancer. I'm sure, indirectly we did. I am appreciative to know now that funds were not directed toward "our" cause by the ACS. Although this event was a positive thing for our family and friends, our primary objective was to educate others about oral cancers. We knew something was odd when we never saw ANYTHING about these cancers at the walk. We're appreciative of the information you conveyed and will certainly still participate in the Relay with our newfound friends (team members that have fought and are still fighting off varied cancers), but will most definitely make a concerted effort to promote oral cancer this year!!! We meet with our team members next week and I plan on educating them about this site and suggesting fundraisers for my cause as well. I am certain I will have their support.

I also agree about the wristbands, colors, etc. If others are not aware of their meaning, or the cause in the first place what good do they do? I just purchased a few wristbands, pins, and books from the site for Jon, b/c he has griped so much about seeing all the other ads for other cancers. At the very least, people around us will know what they mean. I am a high school and community college teacher, so ALL my students will be educated.

Thank you again for the information and just know that you have a couple more advocates on your side. I will now futher peruse the site as you suggested.

Ann

Jerry,

Thank you for your reply. I'm sure we will participate in the Relay again, but maybe just to promote the OCF cause, rather than raise so much money in general. We'd rather direct funds to OCF. We just didn't know this time around that oral cancers weren't "represented". Had a good time anyway and Jon meant several others in the same boat, so to speak.

An oral cancer screening is a good idea. We could have a tent for that. I am getting my dreaded wisdom teeth taken out next month and will talk to my dentist at length about this. He has a new guy that might very well do this in order to promote himself as well. Here I am griping about my wisdom teeth, considering what you, my husband, and everyone on this forum have dealt with! Oh well, as Jon so often says....I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't compaining about something.

Ann

Brian,
At this point, I'm still trying to figure out what services the ACS provides. So far, all I have seen is free coffee at my laryngectomee conference, honest we can afford to pay for our own, and 9 year out of date brochures. Just what do they do with the 50% they do spend on charity after they get done paying all those hefty salaries. If anyone here has gotten some real help from them I liked to hear about it.

Eileen

Hi Ann,

Last year my wife and I had already raised money for the ACS when I was diagnosed with Oral Cancer. The event was 2 months after my surgery and I attended for the first time as a survivor. I had also just found the OCF at that time and decided to volunteer to do the screenings at this year's event. I have no regrets for my past fund raising, but under the circumstances, I am glad that I have changed my priorities.

It's great that you plan to try to get the sreenings set up for your area next year. If you have success and the dentist(s) and/or hygienist(s) are willing to do it and need some help with banners, ideas, forms, brochures, etc. please give them my email address as I would be more than happy to help.

Good luck with your wisdom teeth. No one looks forward to having them out, but knowing that they will never give you a problem in the future, is worth having it done.

Jerry

Ann- if you wish to do this next year with OCF we will see that you get an 10 x 10 EZ up sunshade with half walls on the sides and a back drop with a big attention getting oral cancer mesage on it, a banner for the front of your table, release forms (to protect you) and referral forms should your voluteer docs find anything suspicious. Buttons, literature, handouts on oral cancer and more. All you have to do is rent a 6 foot table and drape from a party rental store ( about $20.00) and pay to ship the items back to OCF (about $50.00). We will even see that you get a DVD (now in production) on how to do a health fair type of screening event properly and get things set up. Just give us lots of notice as we are only producing 4 of these loaner set ups right now.

Jerry and Brian,

Thank you. I will certainly take you up on your offers! Once I speak to my dentist next week, I'll let you know what I find out. Jon wants to speak to his as well.....the one that made his mold for radiation. He has been extremely supportive, so he may be interested as well. Sounds like our team will have quite the setup next May. Jon is excited to show them this site and inform them of funds (or lack thereof) designated toward oral cancers by the ACS.

Ann