2014 SEATTLE BRAIN CANCER WALK --- WOOOWHOOO!

Every year I feel like the SBCW (#SBCW2014) is similar to a wedding: It's months and months of planning (okay, not the case with my own wedding, but I can extrapolate), anticipation and excitement.  You know that a lot rides on this one day and then *poof* in the course of a couple of hours it's all over.  Fabulous, but over. This year was no exception.

Karen and Anner 2014

So far we have raised $479,000...and we know from past experience that funds will keep rolling in for a while now.  It seems likely that we'll more than raise another half-million!!

It was an exciting year, full of some good changes.  It was our first full year with Dr. Cobbs. His research gives me chills every time...the good kind of chills.  He thinks he can figure out a blood test for brain cancer, the cause of brain cancer (which, shockingly, they still don't know) and he thinks he can figure out a treatment that will increase average survival from 18 months to 60 months.  WOW!  Now that's easy to support!  

We added at least at least four new volunteers to the committee -- the biggest gain in recent years.  We revamped the closing ceremonies -- which I think worked pretty well.  I haven't heard back from many others yet, but it looked good from where we were standing.   Overall, we're pretty sure there were more people, although the final count is still being tallied.  I'm so proud to be a part of this organization I just don't have the words to describe it.  So I'll stop blabbering now and let the pictures do the talking.  

Here's the Walk in a photo-nutshell:

This is me and two other volunteers, Kim and Nan.  We were checking out our venue months ago and planning what would go where.  Then about two weeks before the Walk we got a call that we could have the exact same venue as last year and, because we liked last year's spot so well, we jumped at it.  This is a great example of how the Walk takes on its own life and we just do our best to keep up! 

Alice, Judy and Deb (a six year survivor which is pretty darn incredible) - just three of the truly dedicated volunteers who make the day happen each year.  Part of the SBCW Committee, they helped us collect over 125 Gifts of Experiences to give to people living with brain cancer. It's been amazing how little turnover our Committee has had in the past 7 years!

Kami makes us a series of quilts each year for Gifts of Experience.  She's a survivor with a fabric obsession.  Each year she makes quilts, Aaron and I buy Hug Time (a sweet little book about just needing a hug), and Nan  packages them up to looks even more beautiful.  The quilts usually go pretty fast.

On the right is Kami, our resident quilt maker.

This year's t-shirt.  You know it's SBCW Week when Aaron does the laundry and there are 10 different SBCW t-shirts fluffed-and-folded on Sunday night.  We've collected quite a few over the years.

The past two years I've had the privilege of receiving the tributes that families email  to the Swedish Foundation.  We make them into posters for the Walk and then they are hung in the Tent of Honor with all the cranes. It's a job I hate to give up, but someone else will get to do it next year. The stories really pull at your heart-strings and remind us how important it is to raise the money to find treatment options.

Judy and I working in the Foundation Office.  
It's festive and buzzing with activity because the walk is less than a week away!

We take special care to make the event as fun and vibrant - alive - as we can.  One of the things is homemade tablecloths all over the Patient/Survivor Pavilion...but someone's gotta iron all that pretty-ness.  
I did it this year while watching three hours of TV. Kind of a win-win, if you look at it the right way. 

My fellow volunteer, Mercer, working in the Swedish Medical Foundation office.  
Mercer is just amazing - she organizes multiple fundraisers, signs up over 100 volunteers, is in charge of T-Shirt pick-up at the walk, and this year she agreed to Chair the Closing Ceremonies Committee... but all of this is a blog entry on it's own.

Karen and I at a special dinner for donors and friends of the Ivy Center the night before the Walk.  Everyone admired the Aaron Barr "baby flames" necklace that I was sporting.  We had a great time.  Karen spent a lot of time convincing our table-mates to go traveling.  Karen sure has seen seen some things!  It's about time I try to catch-up.  Well done my friend, well done.

The Tent of Honor is decorated with thousands of colorful hand folded paper cranes.  It's a serious labor of love each year keeping these neat-and-tidy and then putting them together again for each Walk. 

Legend has it that if you fold 1,000 cranes you get one wish.  A few years ago Mark, one of our volunteers who lost his wife, set out to fold 15,000 cranes.  He gathered friends and family and everyone from the committee folded for an entire summer.  Pretty awesome.

Nan is also a flower arranger.  In addition to her real job, and her large role on the SBCW Committee, she also puts together these wonderful arrangements each and every year, making the Patient/Survivor Area even more special.

Here are Nan and Tom.  They are two of the friends I've made working on the Walk.  Tom says that Nan has "volun-told" him what to do...suggesting that he doesn't really have a choice -- but I know better! Plus, I think Aaron's glad that sometimes he's not the only guy around.  Thanks Tom!

These are some of my work-friends who asked to volunteer this year.  It was so much fun to have them here on Walk Day and they did a terrific job.  They are the friendly types that make the Walk special.

ME!  The clipboard is a nice add....makes me more official.

I love, Love, LOVE the balloon truck each year.  The balloons just keep coming and coming.  
You can't believe how many they can put in there!  It's even better than a clown car.

Thanks to Kim and Freya we have entertainment all around the 1-mile route.  I'm touched by the number of really great groups that come out to perform for free early on a Saturday morning.  
It makes the whole event more unique and sets it a part from all the other events.

This is a small pictures of a big team.  Their t-shirts have rainbows and unicorns.  
I didn't get to the bottom of their story, but the shirts were awesome.  Teams come up with the best stuff.

Here's Deb on Walk Day -- surrounded by her team.

There was a team walking for someone named Jackie, who I'm guessing wasn't able to attend the walk.  They had the entertainers hold up their team signs while they recorded their performance.  I assume they were showing it to her as they walked in her honor.  The depth of the love and friendships at the Walk is immeasurable.

This is the Total Experience Gospel Choir - a Seattle institution.  
They have been with us for years now and are just fantastic. 

We love you too, Mr. Mime.

The Seattle Philharmonic cello choir performs every year.   They lost a member to brain cancer several years ago.  Her name is Meg and she played clarinet.  Every year, they perform at the Walk in addition to donating hundreds of tickets to people living with brain cancer.

This is Dr. Cobbs and the Foundation staff - a great group to get the opportunity to work with. 
The Swedish Medical Foundation raises funds for all sorts of important work being done at Swedish Hospitals.  The SBCW is one of two walk/runs that they put on each year in addition to a number of lunches and galas.  Thanks to the people who support the Foundation, Seattle has some truly world-class medical care and research options close to home!  

(Sidenote: Everyone...and I do mean nearly EVERYONE in Seattle has their babies at Swedish...I learned today that even Karen was born there.)

Here is the entry to the Patient/Survivor Area -- the calm before the storm.  The P/S Area includes the "Gift of Experiences" where every brain cancer survivor is given a completely donated opportunity to go out -- dinner, movies, theater, boating --- you name it, we've got it.  A small army of volunteers procures all these generous donations and then we give them away to over 100 survivors in about 90 minutes on the morning of the Walk.  Aaron and Brigit are the checker-outer-team.  They get to personally talk to every survivor and give them their gift.

Everyone in a green shirt is living with brain cancer and checking out the Gift of Experiences. 
This area is jam packed with smiles all morning long.

Brigit, Aaron and Byron (below) volunteering.  

This year we expanded to have a lot more massages in the P/S Area. In the past they were just for patients - but this year we offered them to patients and caregivers.  I think by adding more chairs it was a lot more popular this year.  It'll likely grow again next year.  That's just a guess.  Again, I'm just blown away by the generosity that all these massage therapists will get up early on a Saturday and donate their time. 

Anywhere you look at Seattle Center...there are throngs of SBCW Members Walking.

This is what the Walk looks like when it's in full swing.

This was probably 1/2 hour after we arrived to do set-up in the morning.  Yaaaawn.

An hour or so later.

Happy volunteers setting up the Tent of Honor with lots of cranes.

Our Team: Worthy of Hope!

And there you go --- the year in pictures.  Next year, Aaron and I will be virtual walkers...walking who knows where!??!  Thanks to everyone who helped support the Ivy Center and their state of the art research and treatment. 

And this is how it ends...with brunch at one of the restaurants that supported the Gift of Experiences.  If I drink enough coffee and smile big enough you can almost not totally tell how tuckered out I am, but it was so, so worth it!!!!

Happy 6th Anniversary To Us

This year we thought twice about keeping up our Anniversary Art tradition (buying a piece of art for ourselves each anniversary).  We thought maybe with the big trip coming up we shouldn't splurge on art...then about 3 seconds later we came to our senses.  Whew! This is tradition we're talking about after all.  And art!

On our trip to the Midwest we decide to keep our eyes peeled.  We stopped at a gallery in Eau Claire and remembered we had been there once before.  I really liked these crazy-cool bird house / lock boxes made from vintage PO Boxes.  So. Cool!  At least I thought so.  Aaron "liked" it and that was all.  So we moved on.  One rule about the Anniversary Art is that we both have to love it.  That might be the only rule.

Then we stopped in Hudson, WI at the Seasons Gallery - a gallery we've stopped in before and bought pieces from.  Are we becoming "art patrons"?  How fun!  As we walked around, we both did a massive double-take.  Check these out!!!  We both loved this artist... INSTANTLY.  We knew our search was quickly coming to a close.  The only hard part would be to pick a piece....so we picked two.

The artist is Jenn Bell.  It's enamel on copper.

"Reach For It"    (4"x9")

"Blow"   (6"x12")

The blown bubbles was the one we both instantly wanted, but Aaron just couldn't pass up the sweet little heart as well.  Who could blame him?  It's ladder feels like an extension of the ladder-back of a chair sculpture he got from his mom.

For a recap, here are our past Anniversary Art treats to ourselves.

Now who knows what Year Seven will bring...and from where???

Birthdays All Over

Things continue to be a little crazy over here, but I think we've got enough time to post some highlights!

Aaron is another day older and he was celebrated and celebrated!  The book I gave him in his right hand is called "Packing for Mars" and is about the space industry and humanity's pursuit of leaving this planet.  I'm half way through it and promise to return it to Aaron so he can read it too.  It is his birthday present, after all!  In the other fist are nonpareils (chocolate drops coated with white sprinkles)... no chance I'll be getting my hands on those before him!  Actually, those are long gone.

I sent a "Frost Your Own Cookie" bar with Aaron to work.  It's been my goal to make him the most popular employee via 'treats from home'.  Not sure if it worked, but I just might be the most popular spouse based on their comments!

 Birthdays are exhausting!

Another year, another shot at Aaron's mom's b-day cake.  You've gotta frost fast.  This year I got about 90% of the cake covered and he seemed fine with that.  For the record, he's not three.

 We took a visit to Minnesota to see friends and family.  We found this on one of our walks in Minneapolis.  It said, "Before I Die" and then had lines to write what you'd do.  So I picked up a piece of chalk and started writing.  (I admit it.  It took more than the allotted space.)

I made a box, with a check mark and wrote, "Quit my job and travel the world with my Love."   So, in case you're reading this and you haven't heard the news yet, I've quite my job and I"m going to travel the world with my Love!!!!!  My last regular day was last week and Aaron's is in a couple of weeks.  CRAZY!  But here we go....

Before doing that, we HAD to go see Heidi Ho.  We continue to believe we were separated at birth.  Some big mix-up at the hospital... we don't know.  My latest theory: maybe our moms were separated at birth.  Either way,  we continue to age beautifully.

We got to see little Ben and Morgan (10 and 12) who are just awesome.  One of highlights of the trip was when Heidi and I left Aaron to babysit while we got some take-out.  While we were away a neighbor boy came over and Ben says, "This is our Uncle Aaron".  (oohh, isn't that sweet?  no, it gets better.)  Morgan comes in, "He's not our Uncle!  He's our, our, ahhhh... our Godfather!"  Ben is not convinced, "Really?"  With a shrug of his shoulders, "This is our Godfather, Aaron."  That's even better.  Aaron, not sure about the Godfather responsibilities and strong in his manhood, has decided to be their fairy godfather instead.  FGF for short.

Aaron thought barefoot in the kitchen was hilarious. To all our surprise the picture turned out a-okay.  Besides, I think it was Heidi making Aaron a double batch of brownies. She knows how to treat a FGF right!

Then off to see my family, including Michael who's now 13 and totally into Shadow Fighter.  I think he could be a future game maker.  Why not?

Me and Mom!!  We had a really great time.  She made us a "real" dinner that Aaron and I scarfed down very quickly.  Not only were we hungry, mom's cooking is hard to beat!!  Harvard beets?  Sign me up!!!

Before leaving mom, we stopped by to see Sprout and...

The Jolly Green Giant, himself!

Not only did Aaron have a birthday, but so did Adam and Hannah so we had homemade peach ice cream and celebrated!

Hannah picked out a pair of Aaron's earrings for her birthday...

Happy Sweet Sixteen!  (can't believe that!)

And that's all the news that's fit to print.  The rest of our days are spent getting ready for the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk and selling our belongings.

Stay tuned...we'll attempt to get our travel blog up in the next month or so before our planned leaving of Seattle at the end of October!  And we thought we were busy BEFORE!  Whew!