Catching Up
My apologies for being so delinquent with my updates on aglodoxr.com and www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewmcdonough. It's not because there hasn't been anything to report on. On the contrary, there has been so much going on and I hope you've been following Ali's updates on our B+ Facebook page.
B+ Nation Events
Before Christmas, we were honored to be the charity beneficiary of Diamond State Financial Group's holiday giving. Not only did they raise a lot of money for us, but they also introduced us to hundreds of new supporters.
The Diamond State Classic is a great tradition and this year, this premiere high school girls basketball tournament celebrated their 25th anniversary. We've been privileged to be their beneficiary for 8 years now. We paired B+ Heroes with the 8 teams in the top bracket (St. Francis Healthcare bracket). The teams in this bracket come to Delaware from all over the country.
One of my favorite events of the year, the Wilmington Winter Classic was held on Jan. 2nd. The Winter Classic pits the Wilmington Fire Dept. against the Wilmington Police Dept in a VERY competitive ice hockey game. As usual, the event was packed, 6ABC in Philly covered it, and we had 5 B+ Heroes on the ice for the ceremonial puck drop. The WFD/WPD raised over $6,000 for us this year. It was a great night and congratulations to the WFD for beating the Police for the first time.
B+ School Events
Campus events are the primary driver of growth of The B+ Foundation. And, UDance, is the top dog! The UDance students had a busy month in December highlighted by the B+ Hero Holiday Party. We have 44 B+ Heroes (kids with cancer) paired with fraternities, sororities, sports teams, and student groups at the University of Delaware. UDance is the largest student-run philanthropy on campus and the 6th largest college dance marathon in the entire country!
We had the pleasure of visiting with our student partners at Villanova (PA), Chapman (CA), Grace Church School (NYC), St. George's HS (DE), Charter School of Wilmington (DE) and Appo HS (DE) over the past month as well. We're always looking for new schools, particularly colleges. If you know someone that would like to bring a B+ event to their campus, please contact Carly Bergstein at [email protected]. Thanks.
Speaking of colleges, it was really cool watching the college football national championship game knowing that BOTH schools are B+ schools. We are grateful to the students at the University of Alabama and Clemson University for helping us fight childhood cancers.
Research News
In 4th Quarter alone, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation gave out 4 research grants totaling $407,000 to move the ball down the field in the fight against childhood cancers. The recipients included Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital, Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical Center, the Children's Oncology Group (COG), and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). If you would like to learn more about any of our particular research grants, please contact me directly at [email protected].
In other research-related news, you've probably all heard or read about the "moonshot" project - CURE CANCER - that President Obama touched on during his recent State of the Union address. This effort will be led by our own Delawarean, Vice President Joe Biden. We will do everything we can to ensure that the fight against children's cancer is included in this initiative. More to come on this one in the future.
Chris and I were honored to join the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden for their holiday party in December at their residence at the Naval Observatory in DC.
Awareness Opportunity
Believe it or not, we're at 190 license plate applications en route to our goal of 200!!! We're almost there. If you're interested, please click here to help us production started. If you live in Delaware and you don't have a black tag or vanity tag, why wouldn't you want to? There's no incremental cost to you and you spread awareness that kids get cancer too.
Live Like Andrew
Ali & Andrew's Dad