Dear Friends:
As a member of the St. Jude Midwest Leadership Board of Directors, I have learned of the many incredible research advancements St. Jude continues to uncover, closing in on a 90% overall cure rate. However, being a member of the Board also comes with the heart-breaking announcements of those children who don’t win their battle and that is simply unacceptable. We simply must step up our efforts at raising the money needed to allow us to attain a 100% cure rate!
In prior years, I have told you about my motivational angel, Michael Martin, Jr. (pictured above). He is still my rock and motivation as I try to raise as much money as possible. I am certain he was involved in making possible an incredible “chance” occurrence last September. See below for the story about this “coincidental” meeting and ponder the many lives that have been impacted by the incredible efforts of the researchers, physicians and supporting staff at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I continue to be encouraged and challenged by Michael to raise the money necessary to make sure we don’t lose any more children.
We all know this is going to be a volatile and uncertain year in this country’s history, but one thing I know for sure, cancer is not slowing down, and we can’t either. Therefore, to encourage raising a record amount, Martha and I will make a matching contribution equal to 10% of the first $300,000 that I raise. Accordingly, if I can raise $300,000, St. Jude will receive $330,000.We need as many partners in this effort as possible. Unfortunately, I have lost some amazing supporters who have gone on to be with God in the past year and so I am asking all of you to PLEASE share this website with friends or family members who may not be receiving a request to help the Kids. If more people receive the invitation, we can exponentially increase the number of investors in the effort to cure each and every child.
As I mentioned last year, because St. Jude has significantly expanded and improved its research and treatment facilities in recent years (which is critical in the race to a 100% cure rate), the cost to operate the mission for one year has also significantly increased to more than $2 billion, or approximately $3,800 a minute!!! If we can reach the $330,000 total, that would fund St. Jude for 87 minutes! To accomplish this, I hope you will consider giving a gift of a minute ($3,800) or a multiple or fraction thereof. For example, a gift of 30 seconds would be $1,900; 15 seconds ($950); 10 seconds ($633); or 5 seconds ($317). While a few seconds may seem insignificant, all of these seconds add up to the time necessary to save lives. The time you support … your investment … just might be the most important seconds/minutes of a child’s life. Every second at St. Jude counts, so never think your donation isn’t making a difference.
If you are employed by a company with a matching program, please submit a request for matching funds to be sent to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital [PEOROA24WEEK, VIP #526] so that these monies will also be matched by us.
Meeting a true hero ----
Last fall, I ran a 10K in the annual St. Jude Walk/Run in Bloomington, just to try and raise some more money after the Telethon. After I finished running, I was talking to some people when Martha pointed out a woman she had met while I was out running. Upon seeing her, I could tell by her tee-shirt that she was part of one of the fundraising teams participating in honor of a patient. Martha told me the woman wanted to meet me, so I went over to introduce myself. She flashed a big smile as I shook her hand and she said, “I have been wanting to meet you for a long time as I have seen your picture in the St. Jude Pavilion in Memphis and saw the article about you in the Inspire magazine. But even more, I have seen you on Facebook handing out those Champion Donor Awards, so I wanted to meet you to let you know the picture of the child on that award is our son, Ty. He will be having his No More Chemo party in January in Memphis.” Wow! There are times you can’t help tearing up a bit and that was one of those moments. I looked at her and told her that as chair of the committee in charge of presenting those awards, I had spent many hours looking through hundreds (and maybe thousands) of patient pictures from all over the world to find just the right one for the award. I told her that when I saw the one of Ty (and, of course, I had NO idea this was a child from my own back yard), I looked no further. She told me she took that photo outside of the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis during Ty’s treatments. I told her that we took the picture and changed the background to allow Ty to stand out more and make the background more appealing for our purpose of showing the wonder of St. Jude and the hope they provide for champions like Ty. I told her that people have asked me about the child in the picture when I present them with the award and I have always had to say I had no idea of where he was from and how he was doing. But now, I look forward to presentations so I can tell the recipient that this little champion has fought the battle and won and celebrated such in January with his No More Chemo party!!!
Folks, it doesn’t get any better than that and it is because of the dollars like the ones my supporters have invested over the years (now exceeding $2,000,000) that take a child like Ty from a devastating diagnosis to a cure.
Thank you,
James P. Ingold
