Some words about fundraising.

First and foremost, from the looks of the progress bar on the fund raising page that personal goal of $1,500 is going to have to go up. We'll see how things start to go before I set a very specific goal. All of this means that I am very impressed with the level of donations so far. I really didn't expect to be this far along. In fact, I must concede that there was a dull moment when I began to bemoan the slow pace of replies. This was most likely a symptom of those awful monkey pox from which I (and possibly all of Richmond) was suffering from at the time. Let's just say that if my refresh button we some veneered toggle on a piece of actually machinery it might could use a new paint job. Of course I am very happy to be proved wrong by all of the wonderful support.

Furthermore, and even though I mentioned this on the other page, I must give incredible thanks to Andy Jimenez, the general manager and Colombian haberdasher of Cheesecake Factory, and Cyndi "Big Excited Smile When She Heard About the Cause" Coupland, general manager of Olive Garden West Broad. They both made generous contributions of $50 gift certificates. These are going to be raffled to talkative donors. Now, since I've had so much success with these two restaurants I will, armed with my letterhead from LLS, be venturing out to other places in search of contributions. The remainder of these may be auctioned off at an upcoming silent auction put on by good friends the LLS or raffled off sooner. If I do well I'd like to be able to auction something off every month, or with much greater regularity.

Lastly, and most importantly I have to give my wholehearted thanks to all of those who have contributed and given me and everyone battling blood cancers a big boost. Last year TNT raised over $500,000 to fight cancer and everyone who gave is the reason why one day all the children who shouldn't have to live with cancer won't. I'll keep these thoughts in mind as I go through two practices tomorrow and Saturday. This is really pushing me to succeed.

Ever the contribution reminder.