CSTAR

We have already formed an all-star team of site designer, site administrator, art director, finance officer, and marketing department. Their dedication is inspiring, and I feel blessed to have them on board.

This new charity will focus on the same two functions: building survivor teams and guiding survivors through the myriad of cancer resources. This new organization, however, will be truly groundbreaking in its delivery. We will be focusing almost exclusively on user generated web based content. Without giving away the details, here are some of the functions we will be featuring:

1. Cancer resource generator: a cancer survivor can enter specific information about their age, gender, diagnosis, and location, and the website will guide them through a personalized suite of support organizations that will address their unique needs from both the national and local level.

2. Survivor Team Wiki: similar to the Wikipedia concept, we will develop a basic how to guide for shaping the different roles of every unique Survivor Team. All users will have the ability to modify and add to the database, transforming it into a completely accessible comprehensive guide.

3. C.STAR forum: users will be able to post and respond to various questions about anything on their minds.

4. The cancer rant and rave section: tentatively titled “why I hate cancer” and “why I love cancer” this section will give users the opportunity to post anything on their mind. The rant section will surely be cathartic, and I am curious and excited about the rave section. Adversity is always an opportunity to grow.

There are more features under discussion, but these represent the foundation of what this project will deliver.

We have the site to develop, promotional materials to print, t-shirts to design and print, and other things to get done prior to the ASTRO convention.
We need your support to get this off the ground in time to take advantage of the media exposure.

HUMAN SACRIFICE: 2009 URBANATHLON                                                                                               

I am running the 2009 Men’s Health Urbanathlon on 17OCT2009. It consists of 11.76 total miles of running with six different obstacles including:

1. A stutter step tire drill: 70 tires
2. A wall of monster truck tires to climb: 10 monster tires
3. An actual wall: 1
4. Taxi hurdles (think Dukes of Hazzard or Magnum P.I. across the hood): 5 hoods
5. Monkey bars built out of truck frames: 12 bars
6. Marine Hurdles: Yep! They’re named after us (it’s the last log series on the o-course, Marines): 5 logs
7. The Soldier Field Stair Climb: don’t know what to say about this one, so here’s a picture:

536 stairs! and if you’ve ever had the quality seats at the top of Solder Field (unlike my spoiled brothers), you know they get progessively taller the higher up you go. It’s going to be a backbreaker, but hopefully you get an idea of how dedicated we are to C.STAR. Come up with your own mathematical equation, or use this one:

11.76e + 536x + 70y + 12z + 10a + 5b + 5c + d = your donation

I’ll run, climb, jump, hurdle, slide, and destroy these things, if you would donate to our amazing new nonprofit concept.

http://www.menshealthurbanathlon.com/course.cfm

For three years, I have been hearing “If you ever need anything, anything at all, just let me know”.

It’s time.

Help me to transform this experience that I have endured into a new concept in non-profit support. I have learned so much about how to deal with cancer, and the only responsible thing to do with this capability is find the most effective way to transfer this knowledge to other people. Instead of a website that describes a charity’s services, this will be a website that is the service. I am so confident that we are on to a truly amazing concept that has the potential to profoundly affect the quality of life of cancer survivors worldwide. I know that sounds grandiose, but I can assure you I am keenly aware of my responsibility to back up these bold words. I believe in this concept, and I believe in the people who have stepped up to make it happen.

Join us.

Donate to C.STAR, and consider it an investment in cancer support. You have the opportunity to be one of the people who made this possible, to have been there when this project began.

We are operating as a 503(c) charity, so your donations will be tax deductible. We will issue receipts as soon as we have them printed.

Here is the link to our donation site: http://cancerstar.bbnow.org/ This site uses paypal as its secure delivery method. If you do not have a paypal account, or wish to send a check, please email me at protonmarine@yahoo.com and I will send you the information. Please note this website does not represent the style or content of the C.STAR project, it is merely a temporary fundraising site in the interim before our project is launched.

A truly meaningful honor has been conferred to us. I have been selected to receive the ASTRO Survivor Circle Award. ASTRO is the American Society for Radiation Oncology, which is basically the governing body for radiation based cancer treatment in the U.S. I kept the nomination process quiet, as I really didn’t know what chance there was to be selected. I don’t know how to describe the impact. Humbling.

The winner was to be notified by September 19th. As that day sprinted into view, sauntered on by, and disappeared limping over the horizon, it took hope with it. But Beth from ASTRO had other plans. Apparently, she’s not the kind of person bound by deadlines and obsolete “dates” (kidding!). She waited until my birthday, September 22nd, to notify me that I had been selected. It was a serendipitous coincidence.

To say I was happy is like saying the Columbus, OH chapter of our kin doesn’t care too much for USC (they spell it with an “F”?).
I told myself for weeks not to expect anything, and that just being considered was a great honor. I kept telling myself that I had no idea what decision process or criteria were. To learn however, that the award is decided by an at large vote of key members of ASTRO, deeply affected me. I have so much respect for the members of this organization, it felt very out of place to be honored by them. I am humbled by their benevolence.

I talked to Beth at ASTRO after she left me a message notifying me of the award. It was very clear that she is an amazing person with a genuine passion for cancer survivors. The phone call was truly a cathartic, as I relayed the details of our struggle with this disease, and she correlated the details of my experience with other people she has come in contact with in her 6 years at ASTRO.

I will be accepting the award on November 3rd at 0930 in a ceremony at McCormick Place. The ceremony takes place during ASTRO’s annual convention. If you would like to attend, please let me know and I will put your name on the guest list. Guests will also have the opportunity to tour the convention that day.

I can hardly describe how excited I am about this development. I’ve been involved with cancer related industry and activism quite a bit over the past few years, and I plan to use this recognition as an opportunity to increase the scope of this commitment. We’re already waist deep in the process, and its going to be exciting. I am being intentionally vague as we shape the details, but stay tuned for some exciting developments to follow. Soon!

Enjoy this. We’ve been through so much. It is critical to sit back and let the positivity saturate your being when you have the opportunity. Soak in the love: recognition by a group you respect and admire + the chance to acknowledge the amazing work done by oncology professionals + using the recognition to help other survivor teams = a fine day.

Force Multiplier.