We will be launching our Canadian Blood Services campaign again this year. The kick off here in London is August 27. Last year’s campaign was a great success, so successful in fact Canadian Blood Services wants to take the Gold Ribbon Campaign Childhood Cancer Awareness blood drive nationwide! Canadian Blood Services was very pleased with the number of donations we received in honour of Childhood Cancer awareness. In fact, believe it or not we are the largest Partners For Life group in Canada! What does this mean? Well to us it means we can take an awareness campaign for Childhood Cancer…… OUR children across the country. Stephanie dreams of a day when a new chemo agent is designed just for a kid like her. Not one that was designed for an adult. Sure it may help win the fight now but at what cost later on in life…kidney damage, loss of hearing, vision, the ability to walk, death as a young adult? Listen up families, NO ONE IS GOING TO DO THIS FOR US!! Not media, not government, not even the Canadian Cancer Society! It is up to us as parents to make change for our children and those children who come after them! We need to demand our children get the same respect from drug companies, government, etc, that breast, colon, prostate, testicular, etc.. etc.. cancers get. No time to get involved? Ask your child how much time he or she set aside in life for cancer.
Having said that….we are going to have a “soft launch” nationwide this year, and a major launch next year. We really need families from across the country to be Gold Ribbon Campaign “Ambassador” families, especially families from Alberta and Saskatchewan as we have non from these areas.
Families can organize clinics in honour of their child. Steph uses ‘Gold Ribbon Campaign’ for the name so that families from across Canada can host clinics in honour of their own child….but we are ALL raising awareness for childhood cancers across Canada by using the Partners for Life ID number.
Ambassador families do NOT have to organize blood donor clinics; CBS will manage that part of the campaign. We are asking our families to help advertise the clinics. Families can advertise through Facebook, twitter, mass emails, schools, work places, churches, community groups and even post hard copies of flyers around their community. We can supply a letter template for families that are not comfortable writing their own when writing to the papers. We have the flyers printed and ready to go. Our families here in London and surrounding area all pick a different day/evening to spend at a clinic and we thank donors for coming in and answer any questions they might have about our own stories. The donors are always very happy to meet a survivor. The girls have made 6,000 Gold Ribbons that they hand out to donors as a little ‘thank you’. We can mail you as many Gold Ribbons as you think you may need; 250, 500…whatever you might need. You will not be on your own; a Community Development Coordinator from Canadian Blood Services will be working very closely with you to make sure your blood donor clinic is as successful as it can be!
If you are interested in becoming an ambassador family for the Gold Ribbon Campaign to help encourage blood donations, please send your contact info using the “Contact Us” button at the top of the page. We will be happy to call you so that your family does not have long distance charges on your phone bill. We will then pass your name and contact info onto the staff at the Canadian Blood Services clinic in your area. They will work with you to see what date works best for you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to be in touch…we’ll be happy to help in any way we can!
Our Partners for Life number is #GOLD013121, we are asking Canadians to please donate to support children and adults during their treatment for cancer. You can register on line at www.blood.ca or in person at a clinic.
Many new families have asked about our CN Tower event this year, and unfortunately it will not be taking place. The logistics and cost are one thing but as many may remember getting to the event last year was a nightmare. We were informed by officials in Toronto that the construction in the area is even worse this year so as much as it hurt we decided to hold off for 2014. That’s not to say we won’t be doing something for Childhood Cancer awareness. We are teaming up with our favourite partner Childcan again this year for an event. It will be a little different than our CN Tower event in that not only will there be food, and fun for the kids, but we will be raising much needed funds for Childcan at the same time. We are pleased to be a partner in the first annual Gold Ribbon Walk For Childhood Cancer. It will take place on September 27 2014 at Greenway Park in London. Gold Ribbon Campaign will be putting on the Bar B Que and entertainment for the kids. We know many of you who are reading this know the many wonderful things Childcan does for families with a Childhood Cancer diagnosis. This day gives you an opportunity to help them continue providing those services in Southwestern Ontario. (and you won’t get stuck on the highway in a broken down bus!!) We had hundreds and hundreds of people come out to support our CN Tower events so we can’t see any reason we can’t get that many people can’t come out for a day of fun in support of Childcan! Visit this link, Gold Ribbon Walk 2014 to register yourself, a team or join a team. I know the Gold Ribbon Campaign is looking for team members looking to raise a ton of money! Come on people lets get involved, we hope to see you all there!
As everyone knows Stephanie has been trying for years in vain to get Canada Post to do a Commemorative Gold Ribbon Stamp to honour all Canadian Children and their families touched by cancer. Tens of thousands of letters of support were sent to Canada Post the first year, meetings with government officials, letters to and from Buckingham Palace, meetings last year in Ottawa with Jim Phillips (Director of Stamp Services) and Elia Anoia (Stamp Program Development). DEAF EARS! Why are none of these people listening? Still no stamp, you would think the support of an estimated 30,000 Canadians would be worth something……nope Tommy Hunter needed a stamp. This goes back to my rant above about these children getting respect they deserve! Stephanie isn’t giving up, she is bound, bent and determined to MAKE someone listen! Well thanks to the Jenkins Family a meeting was set up with MP Joe Preston. Joe was familiar with Stephanie’s campaign although he had never met her. They sat down for just over a half hour or so and discussed Stephanie’s dream for a Gold Ribbon Stamp. Mr. Preston was very impressed with the work and effort that has been put into this campaign and the amount of support it has garnered. They discussed different approaches we could employ to help the cause. Steph was very encouraged walking away from her meeting with Mr. Preston (unlike the meeting with Mr. Phillips last year). Although he could not promise her a stamp, he did promise to do everything he can to put her in touch with the people who could. Stand by we may need your support again to show Canada Post Stephanie means business! We will give an update when we hear any news.