Hearts of Gold

I have heard many people ask why football players will wear pink during October to raise awareness for breast cancer but they won't wear Gold in September for kids with cancer. Well I have some good news to tell you about the Superbowl this weekend, because every football player WILL be wearing Gold including the hosting team. There are many teams that officially have Gold in their uniforms including my Green Bay Packers, who appear to be yellow, but who are becoming known as those with hearts of Gold for our kids fighting cancer.

 

 

When it comes to raising awareness for childhood cancer, we want to see everyone help out, but we can't just depend on celebrities and football teams to do it or us one month each year. We are on a mission to find a cure for childhood cancer and it is going to take all of us, nearly every minute of everyday.

 

This weekend I challenge you to represent children with cancer at your Superbowl party with something Gold. I am also challenging our running group to a mini map that will take us to the Superbowl during the Virtual Event "Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer" 

https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/132498340251364/

 

 

So don't worry too much about not seeing gold on the outside when watching professional sports because the true support our kids with cancer will receive will be overwhelmingly from those with Hearts of Gold.

 

For more info about our running group, scroll down through the last two blogs and join our Event

https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/132498340251364/

The 4x1200

The Run to the White House for Childhood Cancer awareness was created on the heels of the White House petition, that was signed by over 25,000 people to light up the White House "Gold" this September, in recognition of children fighting for their lives from this monster.

As people join together on this journey and donate their miles toward our destinations, we hope to compel others to run, walk and even observe all of the places we will visit along the way. As we travel through states, capitol cities and visit children's hospitals on this virtual tour, we hope that friends in those cities and towns will share the mission that we are on to reach the White House.

Since Childhood Cancer is the number 1 killer among kids, our reasons for running are far greater than just exercise. We want our country to know that our kids deserve better when it comes to funding research. Our nations leaders need to know, that among all of the other reasons to save children's lives in this day, a cure for children's cancer is a most important and urgent priority.

A little background for those of you who are new to my blog, my son Lincoln was diagnosed in 2011 at the age of 2 with ALL (leukemia) He is doing well today which gives me a lot of room to advocate on his behalf. Now that I am aware of how terrible childhood cancer is, I want to fight for all kids everywhere. My mission to cross the county by myself could not happen because of my son, but in a virtual effort we can all be a part of something great.

Now that we have over 250 people willing and ready to donate miles, we will move towards the road leading to the White House. We have completed 3 legs of this race that have led us to 3 west coast children's hospitals. Next we will take on 4 new maps that will all lead us to the Lincoln Highway, the first coast to coast highway for the automobile. It actually starts in San Francisco, but we will all be meeting in Cheyenne, Wyoming with over 1200 miles on each map. We will also start a new map in Texas with all of our new friends joining.

My hope is that parents with kids in the hospitals right now will also discover the journey we are on for them so they can check out our progress, giving them hope that all of us are on their side. Please share this event with your friends and family this year as we Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer.

Here are the maps I will share on the event page for the 4x1200
Seattle to Cheyenne 1247
Portland to Cheyenne 1231
Los Angeles to Cheyenne 1249
Texas to Cheyenne 1260

Please Join the Event and cheer us on as we travel @ https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/130841170417081

Run for the White House

About a week ago I was thinking to myself about how we could take childhood cancer awareness to the next level in 2013. There are many of us who are on a mission right now to petition the President to light the White House Gold to bring awareness to the governments front step. We think we will see the petition pass sometime today, but we won't stop there when statistically more children have died from cancer this month than all school shootings combined.
In order for all of us to gain national attention, we will need to work together in a way where people will turn their attention away from the idleness of what they watch on TV every night and discover that they still have a reason for breathing.

Speaking of breathing, I am not too much of a runner anymore, but I used to go long distances, walking, running or on a bike. I love to travel and discover new places and as I walked a quarter mile around the park where I live, a familiar story came to mind. Its about a young man who lost the love of his life and as he says in the movie "I just started running..."

What would you think if I just started running... across the country...without hesitation, on a mission to tell people that kids get cancer too and its time to do something about it? That would be CRAZY! But I still wish I could do it. If Lincoln were not in treatment right now, I would already be gone, but its too late to let go of this dream. I want to do it, and I want to do it THIS YEAR! I want to stand on the front steps of the White House on National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day and look at the Golden glow of the lights that shine for our kids because our nation cared enough to stand up to childhood cancer.



So how am I going to do this? With your help of course.



While I may not be physically able to walk or run across the country on foot, I believe I have a plan that will work. I know a lot of people who walk, run, bike, swim and even kayak for miles at a time, and to give them even more of a reason to stay healthy and fit I will lay out the plan to complete my mission.

Starting today I want to personally invite you to join me in a Virtual Cross Country trek to reach the White House in September. This is going to be so easy you wish you could do the real thing. Many people reading this have already done it today, and all that I ask is that you donate your miles to the Facebook Event "Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness" https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/140956752738856/

This event will be open to the public and you can invite your friends who run or walk too.
What I want to do is take every one's distances (or workout times) and add them up each day from January until September.
I will choose some locations on Google maps and set goals that everyone can contribute toward.
If you are running a marathon or just running for fun, you can tell us how far and we will add it to our journey.
I will update this event with maps of where we are going and where we have been so everyone can check a few times a week to see how we are doing.
We will also be dedicating a day of running for children with cancer who have facebook pages and we will send them messages of support from our event.
This will be an exciting journey of discovery and personal commitment to yourself and our kids that we can track this year.
Here is what we hope to see by September and if it turns out that any of us could actually be at the White House on September 13th, I hope to be the first one to meet you.

On your marks, get set, Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness and click to join. https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/

(2017 update: Join us with the Max Cure Foundation on the Main Event on the following links)
https://maxcurefoundation.org/followme/
The main event
https://www.facebook.com/events/309685192742996

A Golden Opportunity

Never has there been a time in American history where you can stand up and let your voice be heard. People are acting aggressively and can be heard world wide as they stand up to advance their cause. Today the White House is receiving petitions from just about anyone for just about anything. One petition has nearly 400,000 signatures and only 25,000 are needed. You have seen them before, and let the opportunity pass you by, but this time I am going to ask every person reading this to take a stand. Our president has declared September as Childhood Cancer Awareness month. I personally don't think one month a year is enough, I don't think 13 months is enough. This isn't about joining the bandwagon and clicking LIKE a million times so a boy can get a puppy, this is bigger and far more important. We are searching for gold like Michael Phelps was in the Olympics and we are not going to go down without a fight. The precious medal is highly valuable, but the gold we are talking about is for our precious children who have been diagnosed with an incurable disease called cancer. The price of once ounce of gold is about $1668 today, but nearly 2500 children will die this year from cancer.

This September we want our president to light up our white house in Golden lights to declare that kids get cancer too and that they are desperately in need of funding for research.

There is no way the childhood cancer community can do this alone. Please join us as the people of America to make this happen, thank you.

 https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/light-white-house-gold-month-september-honor-pediatric-cancer-fighters-and-bring-light-cause/syV6M6wX

Grandpa's Fishing Story

Saturday the Jones family said goodbye to a Great Man, my grandpa Bill Jones. He was born in Burley, Idaho in 1920 and he passed away peacefully in the same small community that supported him for 92 years. He joined the army and traveled the world before meeting grandma Emma who would be his only wife until 1994. He had 1 daughter and 5 sons, Larry, Dennis, William (Rick), Steve, Charlene and Jack. Dennis passed shortly after birth and Grandpa was Larry's caretaker up until now.

Grandpa was a hunter and fisherman and took his grandchildren fishing on the Wood River every time we all got together. The fishing stories that would be told for many years were not always about the fish we caught but the memories we made with grandpa and with each other. Grandpas Fishing Story was never really about fish for me but the importance of life, the thrill of the catch and the sometimes the disappointment of loss.

Grandpas celebration of life service included military honors, singing, a life sketch and a picture video with music. I was asked to say the opening prayer which began with "I am SO nervous," but then followed with a joke about how I would be reading this prayer off of my phone, which I had texted to God earlier. The prayer goes like this:

Lord this is a difficult day but as we prepare to let our father, grandfather, brother and friend, rest in your kingdom, we feel the love and joy that only the presence of your Holy Spirit can sustain.

The journey for Bill has been a long and fulfilling one full of stories that will be told for many years.

 

The love that he shared through 4 generations will never be forgotten and the legacy of a Christian faith and reliance on our creator God will always live in us.

 

As we celebrate his life today we believe that his purpose in this life was complete, and as all the cousins knew the fisherman grandpa was, he was as much a fisher of men during his faithful and caring time with us.

 

Thank you Heavenly Father above for welcoming Bill into you eternal home as a new child again, in Jesus name Amen.

 

The minister who got to know grandpa in the last few weeks spoke about how he came to believe in his creator God and was converted to a follower of Jesus Christ. I had no idea that this would be the most profound thing I would hear about my grandpa.

Grandpa loved all children from his own to his many grandchildren and all of our children. A long time ago grandpa had a niece and nephew who's child named Brian was very sick in the hospital. My grandpa's family raised him with religion but he nearly became an atheist after what he had seen during the war when he was in the army. As he held this young child who was suffering in his arms, the baby slipped away into eternity. It was at that moment that he felt the grace of God that would dramatically change his life forever. He could not deny the pain that was taken from the child and the supernatural peace that followed for both of them. When my nephew or my son were in the hospital he always asked about them before anything else to see how they were doing. He got to meet his newest great grandchild just days before he passed away.

Grandpa's legacy will live on in every one's lives who he touched with his deep love and compassion. Grandpa's Fishing Story will forever be a tale to remember but he is fishing the Big Wood River now and with every cast teaching little angels the Love of his Creator.