Hooray for the SAMFund!

Today I received an update email from the SAMFund marking the end of their 7th fiscal year- congrats to them for all of their successes over the last few years! Theyre a great resource for young adult cancer survivors, awarding $90,000 in grants and scholarships to 62 young adult cancer survivors across the country just this year alone.

For more information about the SAMFund and their services, please visit their website.

BRICKS booklets in Chicago!

Today we mailed a shipment of the BRICKS for Young Adults Cancer Awareness and Resource Guide to Quimby's Bookstore, so now all of our Chicago friends can pick up a copy!

Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 342-0910

6/25: Cancer Caring Center benefit!

From the Cancer Caring Center:

You are cordially invited to join us for an evening in paradise. Come join the fun as we let loose in 10,400 square feet of the uber modern jewel of Mt. Washington, located at 207 Bailey Avenue.

Wear your jeans and jewels, but add some island flare for a night of dancing to the sound of Pittsburgh’s premier party band, John McDonald and the Mango Men.

Enjoy the open bar and taste the wonderful hors d’oeuvres from some of Pittsburgh’s finest restaurants. Don’t forget to browse and bid on items in the Chinese and silent auction.

WHERE
207 Bailey Avenue,
Mt. Washington Pa

WHEN
Friday, June 25, 2010
7 – 10 p.m.

INFO
Only 200 tickets are available for $100 each. Reserve your tickets today.

Call 412-622-1212, e-mail info@cancercaring.org or visit www.cancercaring.org

All proceeds benefit the Cancer Caring Center: celebrating 22 years of service to our community. This local non-profit has provided a wide variety of free support services to cancer patients and families including children. All services are free.

RESTAURANTS:
BELLA SERA
ANDREWS STEAK & SEAFOOD @ RIVERS CASINO
BUCA DI BEPPO
FRANKLIN INN
GLUUTENY
MANDARIN GOURMET
MARK'S GRILLE & CATERING
SHADYSIDE MARKET
OLIVE OR TWIST
PANERA
SAUSALIDO
THE MELTING POT

Hey all! Yours truly has been asked to be a speaker on July 5th's Im Too Young For This! Stupid Cancer Show. The topic will be "Bereaved Spouses". It airs at 9pm, for more information, Click Here!!!

...pages...

...hundreds of magazines. tomorrow they go to the recycling bin.

magazines about art.
music.
design.
travel.
so many things.

i paged quickly through each one before putting it in a box, half hoping some little scrap of paper might fall from between the pages. something to note he had flipped these pages too.

no secret treasures though, just the heavy notion that he had read each of these, maybe at home, maybe in a hospital bed. all with the intention of learning, making mental notes for future works. dreaming of future homes and places he'd never been. his hands had touched these pages once.

most of these magazines made the trip from chicago to pittsburgh. i tried to get him to throw them away then, with no luck obviously. and now that i finally get my way im not as happy about it as i might have been then.

tomorrow is the day though.
theyll all be recycled.

theyll get to be new again.
a fresh start.

Help for Medication Expenses

Ive mentioned it here before but its worth repeating: NeedyMeds.org is an amazing resource for anyone needing assistance paying for prescription medications. You can search for brand name AND generic drugs, and find programs through drug manufacturers or discount card programs. You can even search by disease or condition for programs that may cover many types of expenses, including drugs, insurance co-pays, office visits, transportation, nutrition, medical supplies, child or respite care. The site also lets you search for drug coupons to help with prescriptions, and even search by state or zip code for free clinics in your area.

And look, they even have a facebook page now! Be sure to sign up for their newsletter, which alerts you to new programs and offerings on the website.

Parent & Kid Zine read at CLP

Tonight my son and I got to participate in a Parent/Kid zine reading at the Carnegie Library. Jude Vachon, creator of the amazing local resource Be Well! Pghorganized tonight's event, and invited us to come and read. I took along copies of the BRICKS booklet to hand out, but chose not to read my submission. I let my 12 year old son do the reading- hes been making a zine called "Swirling Vortex of Terror" since 2005, when he was only 7.

While we were there, we had our first opportunity to see the bookshelves we bought and donated to the library in honor of my husband, to house his very large zine collection which he had intended to donate to the library. After his death, we took the MANY boxes of zines to the library, where theyve all been catalogued and are currently available to be read by the public. Many of the zines are from Rick's own private collection, the rest were part of a project he helped curate called Comic Release. There are literally HUNDREDS of zines on every topic from art, GLBTQ issues, music, health/illness, comics, and so many more. It was amazing to see all of it in one place, available to the world, exactly how Rick wanted it. It also made me very proud to know that my son and I continue to make contributions to zine culture, a culture thats alive and well in Pittsburgh, and that Rick's contribution lives on in such an amazing local institution.