[NJSBMWR] Prostate Cancer Fundraising

[Don Eilenberger]

Thanks much for the very positive feedback at tonight's club meeting.

I thought the first thing I'd do is provide some info on the two 
foundations that I think would be worthwhile running the fundraiser for.

I was looking for several things in picking these:

- They provide outreach for education and assistance to both current 
prostate cancer patients.

- They try to educate the public - men who may not know much about 
prostate cancer, in the hope of early detection.

- They spend the majority of the funds collected for research to find a 
cure for prostate cancer.

- They have an International and national presence. In this case - one 
is international/national, the other is primarily US centered.

Here they are:

*Prostate Cancer Foundation:* https://otpc.manyvscancer.org/home 
(Internationally based - strong US organization - and promoting 
motorcycle fundraising.)

     and/or

*Zero Prostate Cancer:* https://zerocancer.org/ (Primarily US based)

I think we want to select one, or both of these as a charity the clubs 
support.

I realize our clubs are not charitable organizations - but that doesn't 
mean we can't run charitable events where individuals can make donations 
to selected charities.  I'd suggest that we consider dedicating whatever 
we do to the memory of Harold Gantz, who was a charter member of NJ 
Shore, and a long time hard working member of New Sweden.  Harold had 
requested that any donations in his name go to the Prostate Cancer 
Foundation, but I don't see that excluding ZeroCancer if we select to 
support them.

For details on how the organizations spend the money they collect see:

Prostate Cancer Foundation: 
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3326

Zero Cancer: 
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=5926

That gives you a bit of background on what I'm thinking about. We next 
must rough together an outline of what we think we can accomplish and a 
time-line for getting it done.  I'll post some thoughts on this soon, 
and would love input from other people.

As I mentioned at the meeting - it appears the other NJ clubs will get 
behind this. The last time (20+ years ago) we ran a 4-club fundraiser - 
besides doing good - it helped the clubs form relationships, and it 
invigorated the clubs that participated. I'm hoping both happen again.

Right now 1 out of 8 men can expect to suffer from prostate cancer in 
their lifetime. For some unknown reason (as of yet) that number is 
actually getting worse. In some populations it's now 1 out of 6.

In informally surveying our NJ clubs the 1:8 ratio seems to be pretty 
accurate.  The breast-cancer organizations do great work in promoting 
their cause.  What's interesting is the numbers for breast cancer and 
prostate cancer are almost identical.  1 out of 8 women suffer from 
breast cancer in the US. 40,000 women die of it.  1 out of 8 men suffer 
from prostate cancer in the US, and 38,000 die of it.  Both have 
different grades and stages of disease.

That's enough for tonight.

I'd appreciate it if anyone who is willing to help out send me a private 
note (not just a response to this email) at deilenberger at gmail.com

I'll eventually put together a mailing list we can use to communicate.

Thanks for listening.  You guys are the very BEST!

-- 

Don Eilenberger
deilenberger at gmail.com