Run for Kids Who Can't, A-T Children's Project

Ataxia-telangiectasia, or "A-T," is a progressive, degenerative disease that affects a startling variety of body systems. Children with A-T appear normal at birth, and the first signs of the disease usually appear during the second year of life. These first signs are usually a "wobbly" lack of balance and slurred speech caused by "ataxia," which means a lack of muscle control.

A-T is presently incurable and unrelenting. If they are lucky enough not to develop cancer, most A-T children are dependent on wheelchairs by the age of ten, not because their muscles are too weak, but because they cannot control them. Later, A-T patients usually die from respiratory failure or cancer by their teens or early twenties. A few A-T patients live into their forties, but they are extremely rare.

The A-T Children's Project, located in Coconut Creek Florida, raises money to fund medical research that will hopefully find a cure or treatment for A-T.

Why not put together a team of Globonders and join Olympic Triathlete Hunter Kemper run or walk to help find a cure for a rare, fatal genetic disease that affects kids? Join the A-T CureTeam and make a difference!

The A-T Children's Project has teams of runners at some of the country's most popular races, including the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend, and the Inaugural Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon.

Imagine sparkling blue water - pristine white sand beaches - lush rainforests. For the first time, all of these features and more will be seen from a runner’s-eye view during the inaugural Kauai Marathon. Kauai’s tropical paradise will become the backdrop for this world class event. All team members who meet their fundraising minimums will receive coach airfaire and three nights at the Grand Hyatt at the magnificent Poipu Beach on Kauai. And, we give you all the tools that you need to raise the funds, including personal fundraising webpages. Scheduled over Labor Day weekend, the event will be an amazing way to connect with friends and family, recharge, run a great race, win an inaugural medal, and most importantly, help make sure that kids with this rare disease get the first-rate research that they deserve.

The A-T Children's Project is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for first-class research, scientific workshops, and a clinical center, all aimed at finding a cure or life-improving therapies for ataxia-telangiectasia, or A-T for short. A-T causes progressive loss of muscle control, immune system problems, and a strikingly high rate of cancer, particularly leukemia or lymphoma. Kids with A-T are born seemingly healthy. Yet, they usually rely on wheelchairs by the time that they are 10, and it is often fatal by the late teens.

To find out more about putting together a team of Globonders for the Kauai marathon or any of our other race weekends, or to learn more about our cause, please visit our website at http://www.atcp.org/ and click on the A-T CureTeam logo, or call 1.800.5.HELP.A-T. Or, you can email me directly at jennifer@atcp.org. We look forward to seeing you there!

Jennifer Thornton,
Executive Director
A-T Children's Project
http://www.atcp.org/

Nambale Harambee

Please Join Us
Friday May 8, 2009

Please join One Village at a Time to celebrate our second annual Harambee.

The evening will include an open bar, delicious food, dancing to the music of Adriel Azure and his Dream Indigo Orchestra as well as an impressive selection of silent auction items including tickets to Elton John and Billy Joel in concert, Red Sox tickets, beautiful jewelry, Aerosmith concert tickets, cooking lessons with a Cordon Bleu Chef, and much more.Tickets are $50 or $90 for couples before May 1, 2009 and $60 or $100 thereafter.

One Village at a Time is a non-profit, non-government organization, which strives to create small, sustainable programs for AIDS orphans and their villages. Every dollar raised for “One Village” goes directly to helping the children and their villages.

WHAT: “One Village” Second Annual Harambee
WHEN: Friday May 8, 2009 8:00-Midnight
WHERE: Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center
85 West Newton St.
Boston, MA

(Parking at 560 Harrison Ave. $5 per car- all proceeds will benefit the South End Little League)

WHO: Friends of “One Village”
WHY: To make a difference in the lives of those devastated by AIDS

Tickets can be purchased on line at:
http://www.onevillageatatime.org/harambee.html

One person, one village, can make a difference.

Doing Good, Susan Harrow

San Francisco Globonder Susan Harrow has created The Cosmic Mending Kit, http://thecosmicmendingkit.ning.com/ a community to provide a sanctuary for exchanging ideas about creating beauty, joy, freedom and peace within ourselves and the world. It's brand new and you are among the first to be invited to contribute so you won't see any members yet. Today is the first day it went live.

You can post your own cosmic mending kit -- an artistic creation of what nourishes you in dark or difficult times and helps you cultivate inner peace on the site now.

Harrow has also created a cosmic calendar where people pray for peace in any way they choose for a select part of the world. This month she's focusing on Iraq.

She says, "Every month we're going to pray for peace for people in a particular part of the world. Whether your form of prayer is a song, chant, laugh, hum, meditation, poem, dance, or simply the feeling of joy that you send on, we're all for it. You can do this for as long or as little as you like. One time or every day. a minute or an hour. It's up to you.

We believe that by joining our hearts and minds together that we can make a radical shift anywhere in the world and that if we band together being peace that it will melt our differences and disagreements."

She got this idea when she read about how meditators who focused on Washington DC http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/ for a month lowered the crime rate by 23.3% when the size of the group was largest during the final week of the project. I encourage you to participate in her project for peace if you feel inclined and to pass this information on to at least 5 other people who would be interested and/or post it to your list(s).