Pennies

QUAD CITIES (but could be coming soon to a town near you!) - Come on, I only have a few bucks. It’s not like that can help anybody. Plus, I really want to spend it on myself because I’ve had a long day and I deserve this ... fill in the blank …

I found this cool civil engineering site (yes, I find those civil engineers to be a fantastic bunch) that shows the strength of a penny. If used properly, you can assemble them and actually create a very strong structure.

The idea that individual contributions can’t help anyone should be a thing of the past, but clearly this is not the case. The downturn in the economy and a simple fiscal year switch has altered the lives of people in the quad cities in a fairly terrible way – the funding for people who need mammograms RAN OUT. Yes, according to a story on WQAD-TV, women who were under-insured or have high deductibles (these are women who actually have health insurance but still can’t afford a test!!!) were unable to get a mammogram. (Please note: The Centers for Disease Control has a program to help low-income, uninsured and underserved get breast and cervical screenings.)

I’m delighted to report that a new donor, the Trinity Foundation, stepped in to help cover this terrible gap. They held a fundraising event, much like the hundreds I have been so blessed to attend, and they averted a financial crisis. So yes, events can actually make a change. Your attendance at such an event, while masked as a fantastically fun party, can be the change that is needed. Your simple donation of even just a few dollars can be pooled with others, like this event did, and change an entire region.

It doesn’t have to be a breast cancer charity (but if you want to, gosh I know a great one - verabradley.org) – just pick the charity of your choice. Donate 5 bucks and see what happens. Maybe next month you can shoot for $10 or $15. Then, you might just feel the need to throw a party for the charity and make it $20K. Sometimes the power of change is sitting right there in front of you, in those hands of yours. :)

Empowered

PETOSKEY, MICHIGAN - Mel Majoros has her life in order. That’s how it seems to me, anyway. I was introduced to her (online) by a mutual twitter friend. We all liked hockey, so naturally I wanted to say hi! In spite of the fact that I knew she was in Michigan and was most likely a Redwings fan (please keep in mind I’m from Chicago ). So we chat. It takes about .5 seconds before I learn that she’s a survivor.

Three years ago she was on her way to the last day of Redwings training camp (her fan life is a bright, shiny world compared to the rest of us hockey fans …) when her doctor called her and asked how soon she could get in to discuss the biopsy results. You get a call like that, you already know what’s going on, without any further words being spoken. What a shock to someone who was in the ‘best shape of her life’.

She was triple positive, and in our world, it’s better than a few other diagnoses she could have received. As an adopted child, it took her some research to find out if there was a family history of the disease (there was, sadly). She had surgery, chemo – including the much despised red devil – and powered her way through all the side effects. She told me that at one point, the nurse whipped out a needle so large she felt like she was in a cartoon. “What is that thing, like 3 feet long? You have to be kidding me!” The exhaustion coupled with insomnia was a particularly challenging battle for her, one that so many of us struggle to handle.

As a radio producer, she was delighted to be offered the opportunity to host her own show www.empoweradio.com; her focus is to tell people to be an EMPOWERED PATIENT. She refuses to let people embrace the idea of being referred to in the past tense once they have a diagnosis. There are so many patients who need strength and help in areas that are totally unaddressed, and she features them on her show to offer them a bigger voice. She’s interviewed singers who embrace the cause like Ryan Hamner and children like Melinda who write award winning books about cancer.

Her outreach and work is touching people, more than she can possibly understand. Thank you, Mel, for allowing me to put the spotlight on you for a change of pace. Keep fighting, cancer warrior!!!

Geraldine

MICHGAN – Last week, Geraldine Doyle passed away at age 86. According to CNN she was the inspiration for the iconic ‘We can do it’ posters from WWll. She was a tall, thin cellist who briefly worked in a factory as so many women did as the men went to war. She actually met her husband at a soda fountain, can you think of anything more quintessentially 1940’s and perfect? Thank you, Mrs. Doyle, for silently standing for so many things. For giving a face to women around the nation.

She has come to be an icon for so many things, up to and including breast cancer, believe it or not. I was gifted a t-shirt that had her image sporting a pink bandana and the words ‘We can cure it’ emblazoned on the bottom. She’s such a paradox, which is why she is exactly the perfect face for our goal. She isn’t packed with muscles, she’s not sporting a power suit, she’s just an average working woman. Like so many of us, she appears to be someone who could be our mother, our sister, our friends and on a really good day (look at how lovely she is!) she’s us. Beauty packed up in a blue collar, literally.

Here’s to the way America was when young Geraldine went to work in a metal factory in Michigan with her red bandana. Here’s to the way America is now, rolling up our sleeves and doing all we can to empower ourselves, hopefully by way of helping others. Here’s to America in our future, in the faces of our daughters. Strong, beautiful, confident. And healthy.