Mind the Gap

We've just finished the first full day of the Summit here in beautiful Columbus, OH at Ohio State.



The first night was a little bumpy. The shuttle never arrived at our hotel and by the time we arrived at Presidential Townhall, we were shut out by Secret Service. All was not lost- we made our way to local bar for a few $1 drinks with some new friends from the Summit. From what we heard today, the Townhall was "electric", with both Lance Armstrong (just "Lance" to most people here) and John McCain addressing the need to strengthen the resources for all people at any stage of their cancer experience. We were also very pleased to hear that both Lance and Senator McCain directly addressed to need for more lung cancer funding and research!!!!



Today was a full day of keynote speeches and breakout sessions. Both Dan & I are in the Fundraising section, and look forward to applying some great ideas to NCCF. The highlight of the day was making 60 second commercials elevating cancer fundraising to our national agenda. I am happy to report that my team won the contest over 12 other teams and our commercial will air during Sunday's final address! Hopefully we'll get a copy that we can share with everyone.



Of course the best part of the experience is meeting other cancer warriors, both those who've overcome personal diagnosis and those who are just passionate about bringing an end to cancer. One person we were happy to speak with was Doug Ulman, president of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Doug is also a fellow survivor. Like Dan, Doug was diagnosed as a young adult and started his own foundation, the Ulman Fund, which supports other young survivors. Check out http://www.ulmanfund.org/ for more info.



And of course, we appreciate the opportunity that the Lance Armstrong Foundation is giving us to be part of such a special movement. I have no doubt that the energy, enthusiasm & sheer willpower of the Summit delegates will translate into a powerful grassroots effort that will move the cancer mountain. You can read much more about the Summit at http://livestrongblog.org/



I will end this post with a quote that I know will stay with me. "We need to close the gap between what we know and what we do". More thoughts on that next week.



We hope you're all having a wonderful and joyous weekend.



LIVESTRONG.