Alan's Hero Fund

It has been very important for us to find ways of remembering Alan and making a mark on the world in his name.

The simplest way is to do an act of kindness in Alan's memory. While the Kindness Project set their International Day of Kindness last Saturday as a unified day to act, you can do an act of kindness any time. If you choose, there are customized cards with Alan's name you can use.

We have been telling you about Alan's research fund at MD Anderson. Last month, we were so able to announce that the fund had been endowed and we will start giving out an annual grant from the Alan P. Sanders Pediatric Sarcoma Research Fund next June. Though we have established the fund, we can continue to add to the endowment so the grants can be bigger.

But as we hinted earlier when sharing about Harold's second shave of the year with St. Baldrick's. we have another way to remember Alan. St. Baldrick's is starting to set up Hero Funds, a way for families to honor and remember their Honored Kid with a permanent presence under the St. Baldrick's Foundation umbrella. And the great news is, thanks to all the support to our Alan's Angels team, Team Harris, our friend Patti Morfeld and Alan's fellow cancer warrior Gavin, the $10,000.00 needed to establish Alan's Hero Fund has already been raised!

With Alan's Hero Fund, anyone participating at any St. Baldrick's event can dedicate their fundraising to his fund (without taking away from their team or event totals - this is a secondary designation of the money). It also means that fundraising events other than head shaves can be done to raise money for pediatric cancer research in Alan's memory. Joseph Moore has already committed to using his half marathon this fall to raise awareness and money for Alan's fund!

How is the Hero Fund different from the Research Fund at MD Anderson? The money raised for St. Baldrick's is not invested - it is put directly into research. Just this summer, St. Baldrick's gave more than $22 million in 63 grants to research projects in 17 countries. While that is true with or without Alan's fund, establishing the Hero Fund allows us to direct money raised in Alan's name to fight the cancer that took Alan away from us too soon. Sarcomas are so rare and varied, they need every possible source of research.


Alan and Daddy - post shave, St. Baldrick's San Antonio March 2012