We are a group of Anderson High school seniors who have partnered with the charity BeatSarcoma to create a fun event that can benefit sarcoma research: a Dance Marathon. BeatSarcoma is a non profit organization completely devoted to raising awareness of sarcoma cancer and support for research. Sarcoma is one of the lesser funded cancers for research. All donated funds you give will go directly to research. This marathon is BeatSarcoma’s FIRST Texas fundraiser. For more information on BeatSarcoma and our mission please see Mission page. We are devoted to BeatSarcoma’s mission and want you to have a great time!
Now if you have never been to a dance marathon, there is just one main thing you must remember-
Dance Dance Dance! The last team on the dance floor just might win a prize!
Dinner is included!!!
Come help us beat sarcoma AND show off your moves! So let’s dance!
December 2009After a very successful 2009, Nathalie Criou, President and Nathan Bossett, CFO, of BeatSarcoma presented Dr. Amreen Husain, associate professor of Gynecologic Oncology at Stanford University a $30,000 research gift to further her efforts around sarcoma research.
'We are pleased to contribute to local research institutions and help stimulate professional interest and research around sarcoma-related problems. Independent and fresh ideas are critical to successful research outcomes' says Criou.
The current knowledge of sarcoma is so scarce that any discovery is a home run - and represents a huge improvement over the current knowledge base.Dr. Amreen Husain notes:'The sarcoma team at Stanford Cancer Center thanks BeatSarcoma for its continued support and applauds its efforts to raise public awareness of this challenging disease.
It's been a whole week since the launch of the 2009 Cancer Fighters Awards. Check out your reviews, if any, at www.greatnonprofits.org/
If you don’t yet have any reviews, there is still time to take advantage of this completely FREE opportunity! (See which cancer fighting nonprofits are in the lead right now at www.greatnonprofits.org/cancer
Make your work visible to potential supporters and donors. Ask your volunteers, clients, donors, and board members to post reviews about their experiences with you!
Whether you are a local organization or a national one, you can gain visibility by participating in the 2009 Cancer Fighters Awards. This opportunity is completely FREE of charge.
The nonprofits with the most positive reviews within their size category – small (less than $250K in budget), medium ($250K – $1M) or large (more than $1M) – or their geographic region, posted by July 31, 2009 will be featured on GreatNonprofits, Planet Cancer, AND on Guidestar.org, the premier site for philanthropic research. All reviews will also appear on your GuideStar nonprofit report.
You can also later use these reviews in your marketing, fundraising, and brochures!
This is an opportunity for you to engage your stakeholders – clients, volunteers, board members, donors and others. They can share their experiences with one another and the larger public.
And individuals who participate have a chance to win great wellness prizes such as a free copy of "Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s" by Kairol Rosenthal, free milk for a year from Organic Valley Farms, delicious baked goods from Dancing Deer Baking Co., spa packages from Osmosis Day Spa and Sanctuary, hotel stays from Joie de Vivre Hotels, and more!
Gain visibility and take this opportunity to engage your community.
Best,
Perla Ni
CEO
GreatNonprofits
www.greatnonprofits.org
By David Liepman
Special to The Examiner 3/22/09
SAN FRANCISCO – After being rammed by an 80-ton sperm whale, Nathalie Criou’s boat had capsized.
Criou and her crew were delivering a sailboat from Hawaii to San Francisco in the summer of 2006 when the boat sank. Adrift for a day on a life raft in shark-infested waters, Criou had no idea that this experience would prepare her for an even greater challenge. Read More...
When: March 22 – 11:30 AM until 2:30 PM
Where: Sports Basement, 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA, United States
Sponsored By: BeatSarcoma
BeatSarcoma is glad to invite you to our:
Kick off party for BeatSarcoma Fun Run
On Sunday March 22nd from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm
At Sports Basement 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco.
You can pick up your bib if you are already registered for the BeatSarcoma Fun Run or you can register for the Fun Run during the party.
"When you are little, death never really crosses your mind. Swimming in the pool, drinking lemonade and eating popsicles when you are 6 aren’t exactly the moments in life when one explores deeper into the meaning of life and the possibility of death. It especially never plagued me. My childhood was relatively normal. I was never hit with any sorrow or strife. I had my friends and I had my family. Nobody was ill, nobody was suffering. My only worries were where I had left my Barbies or if it would be warm enough for me to go swimming (in Texas though, this problem rarely was an issue).
I feel that for Andy and Nikki Philips, this probably was their only issue at the time as well. Living just a few minutes away from each other, seemingly every summer day consisted of playing with them. My memories of our little play dates are limited and hazy, but whenever I think about them, although I can not recount exactly what we did, I still feel love and warmth in my heart. As we grew older, we grew away from each other as well. We were still close, and whenever I saw them I enjoyed every moment of it. However due to house relocations and the increasing amount of school work one tends to find as they graduate elementary school, those moments slowly decreased.
We heard that Andy had Osteosarcoma in November of 2007. Andy’s primary tumor was found in his upper left humerus and he had reverse total shoulder surgery on January 29th 2008. He had aggressive chemotherapy in February 2008, continuing for quite a number of months. Intense radiation in September 2008 alleviated much pain. However two months later his journey ended at home in the loving care of his family. When I heard of his passing, my child-like naivety was shattered. What do you mean he has died? No, that’s impossible, he’s only a kid! Death was always just a second thought for me. I knew it existed, I knew it would happen, but never to someone who was my age. We had visited him during my spring break of 2008 and he seemed in high spirits. He was talkative, laughing, smiling—acting like a kid. It reminded me of how when we were kids, Andy, Nikki and I would all play and laugh and giggle. I remembered how happy he was then. Nothing made us grieve or worry. Life was simple and we enjoyed living it.
Having someone so young taken from us made me realize how precious life truly is, how delicate it is and how easily it can be taken from us. I think of it as a gift now, as a wonderful little present wrapped in a beautiful pink bow. So when my birthday approached in February, I thought of what I truly wanted and I realized all I wanted was to enjoy and celebrate life. I wanted to celebrate those many popsicles I had eaten and those hours I had swum with Andy and Nikki. I wanted to just enjoy living life again, simple and fun. I wanted my guests to have fun and, even it was for just a few hours, be able to act like kids again. And what’s more fun than rollerblading? Turning 17, I figured the ABBA song "Dancing Queen" would be fitting, since in the song she is turning 17.
We all acted goofy, dressing up and falling down as we turned corners. We had fun and we laughed. Andy had always been funny and loving. He had a warm heart and was always making jokes. Andy had requested that when he passed to donate to BeatSarcoma. To honor him, not as a cancer victim but as a fun and loving child, I would give to BeatSarcoma. I requested that my guests bring $10 to donate instead of presents. Andy had given us love and light and laughter and we should do the same.
Even when he was in the hospital when last I saw him about a year ago, his spirit and bright smile touched my heart. My birthday party was not a celebration of my turning 17, but of Andy being with us. Instead of dwelling on what we lost, I saw what we gained while he was here. I remembered how we would play and laugh and giggle and be kids. Although sometimes that pang of grief strikes just the right place in my heart, the warmth from those memories tends to mend my heart after it has had its few moments of sorrow.
Life is precious and should be treated protectively, but it’s not something we can't enjoy. You can have your birthday cake and eat it too. And although sometimes we might hit a few sour patches in the dough, that cake is still covered in icing and sprinkles. On February 12th 2009 from 9 to 11pm, everybody only saw the sprinkles. In the end we raised $635 for BeatSarcoma. But the true intent of my party was to remember Andy, to have fun and laugh.
Live, laugh and love! Life is too short not to…"
By Maria Sterrett with parental authorization
* Chorus lyrics from 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA
So...
And thank you for being such an inspiration for us all.
The BeatSarcoma Team
You too can set up fundraising parties or event - for more info, you can contact us at info@beatsarcoma.org or visit our website: www.beatsarcoma.org.
Here are a couple of webcasts discussing sarcoma and osteosarcoma with medical experts from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. All of their programs are entirely free for downloading or streaming.
For more information and to listen, visit the links below:
Also, all Patient Power sarcoma replays are available at:
http://www.patientpower.info/
![[DSC_1140.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jHNDZiM9scU/SXgFbrSePWI/AAAAAAAALZA/3D8blG6Kj90/s1600/DSC_1140.jpg)
BeatSarcoma has a portfolio of photographs that can be turned into cards, presents, clothing, playing cards, puzzles, key rings, etc...
Dear Santa Claws,
Mark, BeatSarcoma's sponsorship team lead for Sarcoma Cup 2009 enjoying the above creation!
Nat and a few bruises from the 'bouncing around'...
Elise was eager to raise funds!
Nathan is multitasking at the helm
The team proudly displaying their "Team Sarcoma" bracelets at the finish in Hawaii.
And Elise was proudly displaying the Team Sarcoma logo!
2008 Sarcoma Cup
On Saturday June 28 Bay Area sailors were treated to the first racing day of the inaugural Sarcoma Cup Regatta with tight buoy racing action; and what a treat it was as the smokey haze from Norcal’s wild-fires gave way to some blue-sky and perfect sailing breezes. Four divisions raced 3 races each on the southern edge of the
This regatta was the brain-child of Express 27 sailor, Nathalie Criou. Nat is a recent and very grateful survivor of a brush with sarcoma, a rare, little-understood, scarcely researched, and often deadly cancer. This encounter has inspired her to action, creating the non-profit BeatSarcoma, Inc., to raise awareness and research funding for this disease (see www.beatsarcoma.org for details). The Sarcoma Cup was designed to be a celebration of the sailing life and a fundraiser for the BeatSarcoma foundation.
The buoy courses were windward-leewards with separate starting and finishing lines located to leeward of the leeward mark with downwind finishes prescribed for all courses. This efficient arrangement gave the racers what they wanted: more racing and less waiting. Time between races clocked in at around 10 minutes. Fred Paxton’s all-star Richmond Yacht Club race committee set impeccably square lines and true courses and ran like the well-oiled race management machine that it is.
“The circle” often known for its near-nuclear conditions during prime summer wind season on the bay, was a kinder-gentler place for this event, with winds barely reaching15 knots until near the end of race 3 which might have seen a gust or two near 20. Nope, no 35 knot rig-bustin’ carnage on the circle here – we have it on good authority that RYC PRO Paxton may have exercised his well-known divine connections with the Wind Gods on this occasion to quell the circle beast, but perhaps that’s just a rumor. No matter, the wind was perfect, at the low end of the #3 for the Express 27s – easy sailing.
Division A (PHRF) was dominated by the RYC team aboard Peter Kreuger’s “Howl”, with 1-2-1 place finishes. 2nd place in Division A went to Mark Howe’s “White Fang” of RYC and 3rd place went to Glenn Isaacson’s “Q” of SFYC. 4TH place went to Nick Barran’s new XL of RORC.
The Express 27 Division was beaten up by Tom Jenkin’s “Witchy Woman” team from
The Olson 25 fleet mixed it up well with Mark Simpson’s “Shadowfax” taking 1st and Tom Nemeth’s Clean Sweep taking 2nd.
PHR Division E was led by a pair of venerable Santana 22s. 1st place went to Tom Montoya’s “Meliki”, and 2nd place went to Stephen Buckingham/Chris Giovacchini aboard “Tchoupitoulas”. 3rd place fell to Bill West’s Wylie Cat 30 “Crinan II”.
After a very pleasant early afternoon of “all racing no waiting”, the fleet sailed up to the sunny docks of RYC on the “Richmond Riviera” in t-shirts and shorts to the strains of the very cool jazz band, ECQ, dock-side. To go with that jazz you were immediately offered a cool RYC/ Sarcoma Cup “Hurricane” Hunger pang? Hey we can fix that too, with a huge table of dockside appetizers… very tasty appetizers I might add. Sailors milled around on the docks listening to the great band, sipping cocktails, munching appetizers, lying about the races and leisurely putting their boats away. A great way to finish off the afternoon.
This very full day of regatta entertainment was completed with a sit-down evening buffet and an entertaining raffle-prize drawing followed by the second live band, Orquesta Gitano, who dished up salsa rhythms that had to be danced to… big fun !
Sunday’s main event was the pursuit race. This is a reverse handicap race in which the boats in all divisions are thrown together and compete as one fleet. The starting times are adjusted such that if all boats are perfectly handicapped and perfectly sailed they should all finish at the same time. The course started on the south side of the
Those that wisely worked south first on the beat caught the ebb earliest and were first to round
The reach from
The three lead boats successfully held off the charge of the pursuing bigger and faster boats for an exciting finish: Tom Jenkins of the Express 27 “Witchy Women” took 1st, with Ray Lotto’s Express 27 “El Raton” close behind in 2nd, followed by Vaughn Seifer’s
From the finish, just off the Richmond Yacht Club breakwater, it was just a matter of dousing the kite and you would soon be kicking back with a glass of wine from the excellent selection in the complementary Sarcoma Cup dockside bar, or cold keg beer if you preferred, accompanied by great munchies. This had to have been the best complementary wine to be served at any Bay Area regatta (certainly in the 25 years of this observers experience). The opening entertainment for the afternoon’s dockside activities was the charity auction which featured some spirited bidding, pitting race course rivals against each other in seemingly fierce bidding wars, all in good-natured fun for a great cause.
Given the long list of dockside activities that we have reviewed, it’s hard to believe that we have missed one. But, we would be remiss in not mentioning that the festivities actually got started Friday evening with a slideshow presentation entitled “Whale Sinks Yacht – the Last Voyage of XL”. Nat presented a very absorbing account of the sinking of XL from her perspective as member of the delivery crew bringing the yacht back from a Pacific Cup race to
The Sarcoma Cup featured stellar dock-side activities due to all the efforts of the BeatSarcoma volunteers and the efforts of many of the big-hearted stalwarts of the Richmond Yacht Club, including RYC’s first couple, Commodore Torben Bentzen and Judy Bentsen. And this event probably would not have happened without the support of RYC’s Standing Race Committee, Chaired by Gail Yando, and the support of RYC board of directors.
The inaugural Sarcoma Cup Regatta turned out to be a great combination of excellent sailing, very entertaining dockside activities, and significant benefit to a good cause as it raised over $10,000 for sarcoma research. For those of you that missed it this year, we hope to see you at the next one.
NOR
June 28 Saturday Online Registration - Click Here
Registered Competitors
June 29 Sunday Online Registration - Click Here
Registered Competitors
Don’t miss out on the entertainment we have planned for you!
All proceeds go to BeatSarcoma
You can also create your fundraising page in under five minutes at http://www.active.com/donate/sarcomacup08
Round up your friends and family and win $100 West Marine certificate!
| Friday, June 27th | |
| 1200 | Participating yachts are welcome to begin rafting at the Richmond YC. |
| 1930 | West Marine Fleet Night Draw Anyone who spent more than $100 at the West Marine Fleet Night, June 19th, will be entered in a draw to win an ‘Elise’ fleece and a $75 gift certificate from West Marine “Whale Sinks Yacht – the Last Voyage of XL” Slideshow following the regular RYC dinner. Come hear a first hand account of this trans-Pacific adventure. A discretionary donation is requested for those attending the slideshow. Visiting sailors may purchase guest dinner tickets and attend the slideshow. |
| Saturday, June 28th | |
| 0800 | Free gourmet coffee and pastries. Gin fizzes available dockside Race T-shirts are available for purchase and goodie bags will be distributed to each skipper, along with various freebies and one free drink coupon for each of your crew. These will be redeemable after the race on Saturday at any of the auxiliary bars. Gin fizzes will be available for $2. |
| 1100 | Mark Racing The first warning off Bring a digital camera and capture precious moments onboard. We’ll have the children vote on the funniest one! Enjoy! |
| 1300 | Intro to Improv for Kids Enjoy a fun improvisation theater class, led by Amy Houtrow, Sunday Player at BATS Improv (www.batsimprov.org) Tickets: $2 Tickets available for purchase at the Welcome table. |
| 1500 | Live Jazz, appetizers, punch and beer Come back to a live jazz band, ECQ – redeem your free drink coupons and treat yourself to a glass of rum punch or beer, while savoring a few appetizers. Race t-shirts, sailing photos taken by Jonathan Fujirawa and off-the-water surprise moments captured by David Ruiz will be available for purchase. You can also buy an auction ticket for the Sunday charity auction, and raffle tickets for the party! |
| 1800 | Authentic Italian dinner and slideshow featuring YOUR pictures Win a North Sails hat! Delight your palate with an authentic Italian pasta dinner, with three different kinds of pasta, a caesar salad, French bread on the side and cookies to top it off – everything prepared by Michael, RYC’s excellent chef. Secure your dinner ticket in advance and avoid the line: online tickets are only $14 Vs. $15 at the door ($12 for children). Bring your race pictures to upload and share in a slideshow of the day’s events. The funniest picture, as voted by all the children, will win its author a nice North Sails hat. |
| 1830 | Shake it to live Salsa delivered to you by Orquesta Gitano Win an inflatable PFD at the Sarcoma Cup Raffle! The party continues with more live music, and the exciting raffle drawing. Get in the running for UK Halsey Sails backpacks and hats, sailing books “Endurance by F.A Worsley, author of Shackleton’s Boat Journey”, an ‘Elise’ dri-mesh T-shirt and other books |
| Sunday, June 29th | |
| 0800 | Pancake breakfast Sailor’s Pancake breakfast will be served for $5 until 0930. T-shirts and auction tickets available for purchase. |
| See individual start times | Pursuit Race Get on the water for the pursuit race – bring your camera and show off your crew. Laughing guaranteed…You will be able to upload your pictures via the Sarcoma Cup website after the race. |
| ASAP after the race | Drinks and charity auction Meet after the race for drinks at Richmond YC. Race T-shirts and sailing photos brought to you by H20Shots (Erik Simonson) are available for purchase. Preview the high value prizes for the charity auction to follow the awards ceremony. Fleece, Binoculars, Navigation equipment, PFD, painting and photography, grappa, etc… |
| ASAP after the charity auction | Award Ceremony Bring the Sarcoma Cup back to your Club! Awards ceremony at RYC. Enjoy a glass of wine from our specialty bar and admire the perpetual trophy, exclusively made for the Sarcoma Cup by master woodturner and sailor Jerry Kermode. Exquisite hand carved trophies and watertight Stowey Bags offered by Dan of all Trades are awarded to the winners of each division. |
This event could not happen without the generosity of our partners.
5% of all fleet night sales at the West Marine location in Richmond,
will go to the BeatSarcoma Foundation
Nat's story has inspired people to contribute their unique talents to the regatta. Arborist Dan Ratner collaborated on the base that displays the trophy cup with woodworkers Vaughn Tan and Celia Saino. Celia said, "Dan and I called master woodturners Jerry and Debbie Kermode to ask for help turning the walnut burl into a beautiful trophy cup.
The wood for the Sarcoma Cup was salvaged from a local California claro walnut tree and donated by Dan Ratner.
BeatSarcoma lance une boutique en ligne! Achetez des chemises, T-shirts, casquettes, auto-collants, puzzles, tasses, sacs, etc...et aidez la recherche contre le sarcome!