Support Our Cause
Below are three messages from people who are raising funds; my new little sister-in-law, Emily, ‘Favorite Uncle’, my Godfather and truly my favorite Uncle Ralphie, and two of our greatest friends from Syracuse, the Youngs.
A Note From Emily (April 2, 2009)
Hi everyone, I’m Emily, Brian’s new sister-in-law. I have been participating in Relay for Life at my high school for four years and this is the first time it’s had any personal meaning for me. The relay run takes place for 24-hours and someone from our team is on the track at all times. We camp out at the high school throughout the event.
Every year our track is lined with candle-lit bags bearing the names of those who have fought or are still fighting or have beat this awful disease. Called “Luminaries”, these bags cost $10 each and all of the proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society. I thought if everyone who read this sent just $1 to the address below, I could purchase as many luminaries as possible in Brian’s name. If you also want to send any money in the name of someone else, put their name in the envelope and I’ll run for them too. If you can help, please send a $1 along, or make checks payable to The American Cancer Society.
Thanks for your support, even if it is just in spirit…and Brian, keep up the great work!
Emily Thompson
688 Ransom Road
Grand Island, NY 14072
A Note From Ralph (April 2, 2009)
Hi Everyone,
I’m Ralph, aka ‘Favorite Uncle’. In honor of Brian, and to support this worthy cause, I have created a team to participate in a 10-mile bike ride on May 31 in Waltham, Massachusetts. I’m reaching out to all of you to consider joining the team as a participant in the ride and/or support the cause with a pledge. I also encourage you to forward this invite along to anyone else you may think of that would be interested in joining the team! The registration fee to ride is $25 with a minimum fund raising requirement of $500. I’ll skip the complete explanation of the team name, “Whatevros for B.A.S.”, but rest assured it has meaning to Brian!
Thanks for your support!
http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/TR/Events/RFR2009?team_id=23230&pg=team&fr_id=1390
A Note From Brad and Angela (April 2, 2009)
Hi everyone,
Given the wonderful news out of Durham yesterday, we wanted to update everyone on the Tisch fundraising. I also suspect that the usual author may be a little busy tonight with the Wizards hosting LeBron James and a national television audience, so don’t mind if this post serves as ”filler” on the blog tonight….
On Tuesday, the Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke received $4,500.00 donated by The Friends and Family of Brian Sereno in Brian’s honor. This number was significantly higher than what we hoped/expected to raise, and the people in charge of donations at Tisch told us that amount is considered a very large donation for a grassroots fundraiser. (That information came in an email from the woman in charge of donations at Tisch on Wednesday. She also mentioned in that email that she stopped by Brian’s room to meet and thank him during his appointment, and walked-in on him playing with the exam table/chair on which she said he was “stretching-out” while it was raised six feet off the ground.)
A special “thank you” goes out to everyone who donated to Tisch as part of this fundraiser. Thanks for making the B.A.S. > GBM bracelet campaign a tremendous success. Also, we still have plenty of bracelets, so if anyone out there wants one or more, don’t hesitate to email your request to bradfordeyoung@gmail.com and we’ll send them to you.
All our best,
Brad & Angela
On that note, the “Angels Among Us” walk is the largest annual fundraiser for the PRT Brain Tumor Center at Duke. In 2008, “Angels” raised $1.14 million for brain tumor research. Though we won’t be walking, the generous donation that was made established a ‘team’ for the walk on my behalf. If you are still interested in donating to Duke, please do so by sending donations to:
Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke - Angels
DUMC Box 3624
Durham, NC 27710
Please note that your donation was for the ‘Brian Sereno’ team. Donations can also be made at angelsamongus.org, though our team isn’t reflected online as of yet.
A Note From Brad and Angela (February 10, 2009)
Hi everyone - I am a friend of Brian’s and am going to act as your guest blog writer for the next seven paragraphs. I have no hope or illusions of providing you with anything anywhere near as inspiring, insightful or amusing as the posts written by the regular author, but hope to offer you (and future GBM patients) something else instead.
Through his daily posts, Brian (a.k.a. Sereno a.k.a. B.A.S. a.k.a. Ba$$) enables each of us to follow along during all of the steps leading up to his eventual victory over “the bastard tumor” and GBM. Although his supremely confident attitude, the partnership with his resourceful and loving wife, and his alliance with Duke are surely enough to win this battle, Brian has repeatedly mentioned how truly blown-away and humbled he has been by the outpouring of love and support from friends and family across the globe.
In an effort to try and provide a little more of that support, my wife Angela and I put together some simple rubber bracelets that can be worn to remind Brian that we are all behind him in every step of this fight. As you can (sort of) see, the bracelets are orange and contain the slogan “B.A.S. > GBM”. It is short and simple, but the man they call Ba$$ has shown everyone that it is empirically correct… Brian Sereno is greater than GBM.
If you would like a bracelet (or 2, or 3…), please email me at bradfordeyoung@gmail.com, provide your name and address, and let me know what size bracelet(s) you would like. (There are only two sizes - Adult and Youth. The Adults, not surprisingly, will fit the majority of adults, while the Youth size is best for kids or women with thinner-than-average wrists.) We have 500+, so please don’t be bashful to ask for one.
There is no cost or charge for the bracelets. However, we would like to use this platform as a means for collecting donations for the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, whose research is at the forefront of the battle to cure GBM once and for all. If you so choose, in addition to emailing me, please send a donation in whatever amount you choose to:
Brad Young
300 E. 39th Street, Apt. 15D
New York, NY 10016We will collect all of the donations and then give them to the Tisch Brain Tumor Center as one large donation from the Family and Friends of Brian Sereno.
Thanks for reading this, folks. See everyone on May 6, 2010!
Brad & Angela
Please note that although checks can be made out to me or to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, it is more advantageous to make them out to Tisch directly. If you make the check out to Tisch, you (a) can claim the donation as a tax deduction, and (b) may be able to get a matching donation from your employer (if your employer offers such a program). If you already sent a check payable to me, rest assured that we will collect and cash all such checks, and send them to Tisch as one large payment along with all of the other donations we receive.
Regardless of to whom you write the check, please send all checks to me at the above address so that we can keep track of the overall donation being made in Brian’s honor. Thanks everyone!
To those who sent (or will be sending) a donation:
We are collecting all of the checks to send to Tisch in one large donation. We expect to send the checks in the next couple of weeks. Therefore, please note that your check likely will not be cashed for a little while. I hope this does not cause any problems for anyone.
We have plenty of more bracelets, so if you are interested, don’t be shy!
Hi everyone,
Thank you very much to everyone who has requested bracelets and/or sent a donation to Tisch. We have collected quite a few checks and plan to send them all in to Tisch next week. If you want to send a donation and have not done so yet, let me know at the above email address and I will be sure to wait for yours to arrive. Otherwise, you can always send one directly to Tisch itself at a later date.
To those who already sent their donations to us — your checking balances will be accurate in a week or so. Thank you for your understanding as we collect as many as possible.
Once we send the donations in, I will post the total amount collected on the blog.
Thanks again everyone!
Hey Brian,
Yours is a great story. The Wiz have a courageous man working for them.