Bibliosphere

 The CureSearch walk was a good experience this year. I raised $250 from friends and family, and I did get a t-shirt (which, I may add, is pretty cute). The walk was smaller than what it was, but it was still a good showing. I always like seeing the nurses from the children's hospital there, showing their support. While the walk didn't raise as much as they wanted, I think it was still a good thing.

 Here we are, September again. September marks the first day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Last year, I was able to post 2-3 times a week, the whole month. This year I won't be able to. I do want to make a goal of at least one post a week, so that I can continue spreading awareness about childhood cancer. I will make one last plug for my CureSearch Walk fundraising. I'm super excited to be back this year with my team, though it may be a small team.  Donate Here  

 After a 9 year hiatus, I am pleased to announce that the Rhabdo Warriors are back at it for the 2024 Salt Lake CureSearch Walk. I am excited to slowly get back into the community, in ways that make sense for me. While volunteering for other CureSearch programs didn't work out, I am excited for the walk and for making my team. I've even roped in a friend! If you would like to donate to my walk profile, click here . Any donation is helpful! Together, we can end childhood cancer.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about where I'd like to volunteer. I volunteered a lot in high school and college, but stopped once I started working full time. I have long hours, and weird hours, and it makes having a regular volunteer gig difficult. I fully believe that, while volunteering is vital and fantastic part of our world, not all volunteer positions are for all people. But recently I realized that with advocacy organizations, I could do work from home, on a weird schedule. I do email and call my representatives after all, and I enjoy writing and blogging. So I'm looking at volunteer opportunities with some childhood cancer advocacy organizations, as well as potentially restarting my CureSearch walk team, the Rhabdo Warriors. Maybe with a new name, I'm not super attached to that one.  So wish me luck in this new adventure.

     ...and your wallet to help end childhood cancer.  In just under three weeks, I will be walking in the Salt Lake City CureSearch Walk as the team captain of the Rhabdo Warriors.  You can help us end childhood cancer by donating:  http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/steffi Who do I walk for? Nolan - Rhabdomyosarcoma survivor Per - Angel, Neuroblastoma and Rhabdomyocarcoma Amelia - ALL survivor Elizabeth - ALL survivor Ariel - Angel, Rhabdomyosarcoma Brittany - Angel, Neuroblastoma Mariah - Angel, DIPG Emma - Angel, ALL Jessica - Angel, Rhabdomyosarcoma Aiofe - AML survivor Jack - Angel, Neuroblastoma

     This marks the third year of me walking in the CureSearch walk to end childhood cancer.  It's also the second year of the Rhabdo Warriors team at the walk.        I'm super excited to be walking again, and I hope to make an even bigger impact by raising more money and creating a bigger team.  You can donate to me here , or to the entire team here . You can also visit my walk page:   http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/rhabdowarriors .        So, if you're going to be in Salt Lake on September 27th, 2014, come join the rhabdo warriors as we walk to end childhood cancer.   http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/rhabdowarriors

    So, it's been over a month since my last post, and boy has it been busy!     The Curesearch walk was a great success.  I raised over 100, and will be making the 150 mark as soon as company matching comes through!  Team Rhabdo had a great walk and will be increasing our participation next year.     Fall break was the week after, and I got to go back to WI.  I got to visit camp (twice), once to lead low-ropes and once for fall fest!  Awesome fun.    Tomorrow is Girl Scout Night Jr, which I've been organizing since last may.  I'm super excited, but a bit nervous.  I'm hosting 66 girls grades K-5, plus 35 adults, to teach them about women in engineering and about how awesome it is.  Hopefully all goes well on that front.  The activities are super exciting, making silly putty, doing an egg drop and playing with the Van De Graaf generator.     More updates on my life later.

      I am supporting childhood cancer research by walking in the Salt Lake City CureSearch walk on October 5.  I've created a team, the Rhabdo Warriors, to involve more people.  With only 27 days left until the walk, we are in the home stretch to raise money.  You can donate to my page here .  You can also donate to the Rhabdo Warriors here .

Hello everybody!       Another semester has started here at the University of Utah, with all the fun and work college brings.  I'm delving into richer bioengineering coursework, including a physiology course with a focus on neural engineering.  I'm continuing with my involvement in SWE, working to bring STEM education to girls and women.        I also got a grant to work on a research project in the lab I worked in during the spring.  I will be studying a latent form of antithrombin that is proposed to have anti-angiogenic properties.  These properties could be exploited to treat many diseases, including tumors, which would definitely be a good thing!  I'll write a post specifically about my research a little later this month, which brings me to by next point:       As you all know (or at least I hope you do), September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month.  As I did last year, I will be 'celebrating' by r...

Check out the video I've made for the Rhabdo Warriors Curesearch Team! 

     This will be my second year participating in the Salt Lake City Curesearch.  This year, I've started a team: the Rhabdo Warriors.  I welcome any donations to either me, or my team.  My goal is to raise $150, with the team raising a total of $250.  Visit my page here , or join my team here .  Help raise money to support awareness for childhood cancer and to find a cure.

It's been a few weeks since the Salt Lake City Curesearch Walk that i participated in, and here's the current numbers: I personally raised $175, with the help of family, friends and some gift matching from corporations. Thank you so much for everyone who donated. I also roped a friend into coming, which was pretty awesome. The Salt Lake CureSearch walk raised $168,427 as a whole, thanks to over 3000 participants and many donors. But wait, if you've been a slow poke it's not too late to donate. You can donate to the walk's page at  https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp? , although no telling how logn it will be there. You can also donate by mail to CureSearch for Children's Cancer 440 E. Huntington Drive Suite 400, Arcadia, CA 91006 or cut out the middle man and donate straight to cure search at  https://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Single/SinglePledgeBasket.asp?iev

For the CureSeach walk today, since I didn't have a team or t-shirt to say who I was walking for, I made a sign to wear. All of the names that are written on the sign are children that I know who have, or had cancer. Children with names dotted with gold passed away as a result of treatment. When I opened my computer, after returning from the race, I was greeted with the news that I would need to dot a name with gold. Rest in Peace Bo. http://www.doorcountyadvocate.com/article/20120929/ADV01/309280328

Today, September comes to a close. And with it, 2012's childhood cancer awareness month ends. However, this is not an ending. This is just the beginnning. There is so much more that can be done for childhood cancer, in terms of it's research, detection, prevention, treatment and long term managment, whether that be survivorship or grief management. Why do we need a cure for childhood cancer? So that no parent has to answer, "Mommy, what's cancer?", "when will I get better?" and "what's hospice?". So that no child has their life cut short by a disease or it's treatment. So that families don't live with the possibility that cancer could come back into their lives again with a relapse, a secondary cancer, or even another child's cancer. Childhood cancer awareness is year long. Cancer doesn't stop, so we can't either. Fight for a cure for cancer, until childhood cancer is a bad memory, and until children no longer need t...