Moving Forward

              

Our New Logo

Can’t do much else can we?  As Bruce Barton said, “When you are through changing, you are through.”  We’re hardwired to keep moving forward; to continually try to make our situation better even though sometimes all we do is repeat the mistakes of the past.  But move forward we must and that is what we’re doing here at CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation (hopefully not with the whole repeating-past-mistakes thing).

Thanks to our generous Network (that’s YOU, generous reader) we’ve had a very good first half of the year.  Revenue is exceeding expectations due to increased donations, more successful fundraising events, and the release of Rachel’s book, Four Seasons ForCharlotte: A Parent’s Year With Pediatric Cancer.  It seems that so far, we have been doing things the correct way and our mission is being well-supported.

The Cover of Rachel's Book

                With all that in mind, it’s time to take some more baby steps forward.  This year, we will award a total of at least 25 financial assistance grants.  This almost doubles our impact from 2011 (so maybe “baby steps” is too conservative a term).  We also have plans to expand our Board of Directors and have welcomed some extremely capable members to the current board.  Our fundraising initiatives like the Butterfly Socials, the Thumbs Up Ball, and the Fall Art Auction continue to evolve into our primary annual events and we continue to seek ways to improve upon the last event’s success.

We are also modifying our online presence a bit.  In the near future, you will see more regular (weekly) blog posts covering various aspects of CJSTUF.org.  We are currently gathering stories and profiles of our Board of Directors, staff, local medical professionals, events, partnering non-profits, and most importantly, the reason we exist - our families.  We will spotlight these courageous families in an attempt to inspire the reader to do more, to dig deeper, or simply to help the healing process by making the families aware that they are not alone in their struggle.

You will soon be seeing small updates (in both look and function) to the website and social media outlets to include software upgrades, calendars, new widgets, and more efficient ways to keep up, and become involved, with CJSTUF.org.

One thing we are NOT changing is the mission.  We will also never forget the curly-haired, sweet-voiced little girl whose strength and courage is the inspiration for what we do every day. (We still miss you, Charlotte!)

It’s an exciting and bittersweet time for us here at CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation as we continue to move forward, or as Jonathan Agin signs off of daughter Alexis’, Caringbridge posts, “…we are one day further, yet one day closer…”

We are so thankful to all who are helping us make unbearable situations a little more bearable.

Onward to 2011

Sorry that the blog has been kind of quiet lately.  There have been a couple of reasons for this.  Although we haven't had any official Foundation events to promote, I am happy to report that since our last post we have received some very generous year-end donations.  Thank you for helping us keep our mission alive.    

Another very exciting announcement is that CJSTUF is hiring its very first paid employee.  In assessing our goals and needs, the board determined that the best way to accomplish our aims was to have a part-time Foundation Administrator and Event Coordinator who can help us accomplish this.  In a perfect world, it would be great if Roger and I could fill this role but our other professional obligations are keeping us otherwise occupied at the moment.  Anyway, we received a LARGE number of applications and have narrowed the field to a few select candidates.  We hope to have a decision by the end of the year.  We're very excited about this so stay tuned!

Finally, in case you haven't heard through the grapevine, Rachel has started her very own personal blog.  She's aiming for it to be an equal mix of social commentary, personal musings, and cultural discoveries.  If you want to follow some of her "non-foundation-related" writing, check it out. 

We hope everyone is staying warm during what is definitely WINTER weather.  If you have a chance to make a snowman, take a picture for us and email it or post it to our Facebook page.  Here are some of our favorites from 2009: