9/11 - A Meaningful Day for Many Reasons
As we navigate our new abnormal with COVID, childhood cancer doesn't take a break. Today, I signed 68 family assistance checks for families of kids with cancer. Last week, it was over 100! Today, we helped the family of a child with cancer whose Mom was diagnosed with cancer in May and died in July. Dad is now working two jobs trying to stay ahead of bills while taking care of the child during the cancer 'journey'. Because of your support, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation continues to be there for them. Sadly, we mourn the loss last weekend of B+ Hero, Lily, who was paired with the AEPhi sorority at NYU.
Happy Birthday Andrew!
Speaking of our namesake, eight days ago was Andrew's 28th birthday. As Ali so poignantly wrote on Facebook, we struggle with the fact that we celebrated 14 great birthdays with Andrew in person and have missed him so much for the last 14 birthdays. Thank you, all, for the kind messages and donations in honor of Andrew.
9/11
September 11th is a bittersweet day for me. It is bitter, of course, because of the tragic and senseless loss of lives on 9/11/01 in NYC, DC, and PA. We lived, worked, and played in NYC for 10 years and to see the towers come down was just surreal. I had the solemn opportunity to visit Ground Zero with a friend of mine (and Balt. Co. firefighter) just days after 9/11. I could literally taste the concrete dust in my mouth. My heart sank with every visit to fire houses in Manhattan.
September 11th is also the anniversary of the creation of The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. It was on this day in 2007 that we incorporated in the State of Delaware. While I'm very proud of what B+ Nation has accomplished over the past 13 years, I sure wish I came to founding this charity via a different route.
B+ 5k & B+ Golf Outing
It seems unseemly to move right into talking about B+ events following a discussion of 9/11, but we need to raise money to help the kids and their families. For safety reasons, we will not be holding our 14th Annual B+ 5k in person, but instead it will be VIRTUAL this year. Stay tuned for more details.
We WILL be holding our 14th Annual B+ Golf Outing, Dinner, & Auction on Oct. 5th at the DuPont CC with numerous new safety precautions. We are scrambling for some last minute, cool auction items, so please contact me at [email protected] if you happen to have anything. Thank you.
MAKE it a great weekend. It's up to you.
Live Like Andrew!
Ali & Andrew's Dad