Getting ready for the May 2nd event, and the visit from Emily Pepper

One of the wonderful benefits of participating in this fundraising drive is reconnecting with so many people. My friend Kristin Bertrand, who has been a great help to me in this campaign, especially in planning the May 2nd event, said that one of the best things about doing something like this was that you got to witness the generosity of your friends and acquaintances. It's truly inspiring to see how many of you are participating in so many different ways in order to help me to raise money for this important cause. The generosity of your kind donations, your words of support, and the donation of your time and talents to help me with the reception and showing on May 2nd continue to inspire and amaze me. 

Keira Schwartz and Damir Emric as well as the four young ladies from the Ballet San Jose School who appear in my piece 54321WPT began rehearsals again last week, and we will run the full piece today during the dancers' lunch break. I am so appreciative to company members Jing Zhang, Mallory Welsh, Lahna Vanderbush, and Emily Bromberg as well as the dancers previously mentioned for donating their artistry to the LLS for the performance on Sunday. I am looking forward to sharing the ballet with everyone, and excited to see my brother, Cliff Rawson, who will be flying in from New York on Friday in order to perform with us on Sunday. 

Also on Friday, Emily Pepper, the LLS Girl of the Year will be touring the Ballet San Jose building, watching a run through of next week's Spring Rep performance, meeting the dancers, and receiving a gift which will include an invitation to participate in an extremely exciting Ballet San Jose experience during next year's Nutcracker! I will post photos and details after this event takes place, as I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to introducing Emily to the dancers and everyone at Ballet San Jose.

Emily Pepper and her father at the campaign kickoff.

My good friend Mark Young, who works with Gareth at Nvidia, sent out a letter to his friends from work in support of this campaign. I found his words extremely moving, and would like to share them with you. 

Here is Mark's letter:

"Consider, for a moment, your health.  Consider how good it feels in this moment to be healthy and how relieved you are that you, your family, and your friends are also in good health.    I’m sure we’ve all had the experience in the midst of sickness, where we reflect on how often we take our good health for granted.

Now consider the possibility where you, a family member, or a friend, is diagnosed with cancer.

Over four years ago, in January of 2006, a close friend of mine, Dalia, the wife of our Nvidia colleague Gareth Hughes, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.   I can only imagine how terrified she must have been at the diagnosis.   I was in my own state of shock on hearing the news.   Overcome with a sense of complete helplessness, I did the only thing I could think to do:  be the best friend I could be while I watched her suffer through the treatment.   It was a difficult time for me, bringing back the recollection of other friends I’d known who’d fought the disease and lost.

Dalia continues to get twice annual scans,  now four years on, and I’m delighted to report that they each and every one has been clear.

Dalia was lucky to get the benefit of years of cancer research, providing an experimental treatment that was effective in treating her cancer.   This experimental treatment was aggressive; but because of that treatment, the research that created it, and the money that funded it, I still have a happy healthy friend.

As a survivor, Dalia was selected to participate in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the Year Fundraising campaign.  The campaign is a ten week contest where participants strive to top the fundraising of other nominees vying for the title of Woman of the Year.   In the end, the goal is raising the funds necessary for research in the fight against blood cancers.

Please join me in supporting this fundraising campaign and the research it facilitates."

With Mark and Gareth 

Thank you Mark, for your help during this campaign and your incredible friendship and support while I was going through treatment and recovery. You were one of the people who always called while I was getting chemo, who visited me at the hospital, and who never let me forget that you were thinking about me and hoping for my quick return to health. 

Letters, Thank-Yous, and Inspiring Kids

The campaign is moving forward! We are receiving donations each day, and I am trying desperately to stay on top of thank-you notes and avoid harassing those who have already generously donated with additional appeals. 

I have been talking with the staff at Ballet San Jose about Emily Pepper, and we have put together a wonderful set of experiences for her and her family! I am completely thrilled about this and will update this blog as things unfold. As things stand now, she and her family have been invited to a run through of the ballet's Spring Rep program where she will get to meet the dancers and will be given a gift that will include all sorts of exciting opportunities to participate in various special experiences with Ballet San Jose and Ballet San Jose School. I don't want to give anything away here, but I will definitely update this blog with photos and more information as soon as I can. 

Here is a photo of me with Emily Pepper, Girl of the Year, and Aidan James Bowen, Boy of the Year.

As I said in my last post, meeting them was truly inspiring, and I feel very lucky to have met two such special children.

My mother, whom I wrote about previously and whom I hope to honor with this campaign, sent out a very moving letter to some of her friends in Brentwood with the help of her excercise teacher Cheryl Ortiz. I found her words very touching, and would like to share them with the photo she included in her letter. 

"Dear Friends,

By donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, we can be sure that we are helping to save lives, like that of my daughter Dalia, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma when she didn't even realize that she was ill.  She underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and an auto-transplant (using her own stem cells harvested from her blood), and participated in a new trial that injects cancer-killing cells grown in the lab from some of the left-over blood used in the transplant.

With my donation I know that I am helping other cancer patients to recover, as so many people before me with their donations helped to save my daughter's life.

Thank you for considering this request to donate to the LLS.

Sincerely,

Zivile Rawson"

Mom and I at my wedding reception, September 2006

Starting the Campaign

I was very taken aback when asked by Michael Miller, last year's Man of the Year and the former Executive Producer and CEP of the American Musical Theater, to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Man and Woman of the Year Campaign. I had no idea what that even meant, and remember asking how this was possible, as I hadn't done anything worthy of that sort of title. He explained to me that the campaign was a fundraising opportunity, and though I still am uncomfortable with the idea of campaigning for a title, I did not see any way in which I could turn down an opportunity to raise funds for a group that has done so much incredible work and which has directly touched my life as a someone who has gone through treatment for and is now in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

The work to get this campaign organized has been a bit daunting for someone as administratively challenged as myself. Over the last few months, I have done my best to compile email and address lists. I completely apologize to any and all of you who have gotten more than one email or letter. I can't even manage to get out Christmas cards properly, so the effort to organize my slipshod address books and email lists has made me a very grumpy person to live with, and I apologize to Gareth for all of the cursing and unpleasantness.

I have started to realize that I have friends with the drive and administrative skills that I lack, however, and I am trying to benefit from their example and assistance.

Ballet San Jose, where I have worked for almost two decades, gave me my first big boost of confidence and optimism when they agreed to partner with me in this campaign. Along with offering administrative support and silent auction items, they have agreed to host a reception in honor of those who donate $300 or more to my campaign on May 2 in the Studio E theater of the ballet building! Company dancers Keira Schwartz, Damir Emric, Jing Zhang, Mallory Welsh, Lahna Vanderbush and Emily Bromberg will be dancing a new ballet I choreographed called 54321WPT at the reception, and my brother Cliff Rawson of the band Ladycop will be performing live the score he composed for this ballet. These artists as well as four students from the Ballet San Jose School are donating their artistry to help raise funds for the LLS, and I am humbled and honored by their participation. You can see a preview of the piece on the front page of the blog, check it out!

My wonderful friend, Ballet San Jose School Administrative Director Kristin Bertrand, has agreed to help me out as a team member in this campaign. What this means is that I go to her for everything, as she is an administrative and fund-raising goddess. Through the force of her persuasive and charming personality I have ended up believing that this could be a pretty successful campaign. After a fun evening over wine that she suggested and facilitated, the owners of the downtown Britannia Arms have agreed to donate wine and appetizers to our reception on May 2! Isn't that exciting!  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of Britannia Arms, and by their willingness to help. Kristin and I really felt like we could accomplish a great deal after this successful and inspiring meeting, and I would have been a nervous wreck if I had walked into such a conversation without Kristin.

I should also acknowledge both Ballet San Jose's Artistic Director Dennis Nahat, and Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel. They each have offered their support in order to make this fundraising campaign as successful as possible. I would be doing this in a much more low key and undoubtably much less successful way without their inspiration and help. Each time I speak with one of these amazing people, each so talented in ways that we all know about and in ways that continue to take me by surpise, I am re-energized and begin to believe that anything is possible. I started out thinking that there was no way I could possibly be even remotely successful at raising funds, but that it was still important that I try. Now I am scared I will let everyone down if I don't win, as these people deserve the best candidate possible for their support and optimism.

But last night I was reminded of how unimportant winning was, and of the incredibly serious and important work that will be funded by this campaign. At the Plumed Horse in Saratoga, I attended the kickoff event for this drive, and I met the other candidates and the two children who are going to be honored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this year.

I have to admit that I might not have shown up if I had known that I would be hearing the heartbreaking stories of the families of these incredible children and of some of the other nominees. I know it was extremely difficult for my husband Gareth and our friend Mark Young who were there with me to hear their words as well, as for both of them it brought back memories of my own illness and treatment. For me, hearing words like "PICC line," "blood clot," and "bone marrow aspiration," bring to mind times and experiences I try not to think about. But the message in these stories was as important as it was intensely moving.

The government does not fund research to treat and cure blood cancers the extent that it needs to be funded to. We need to come together as a community in order to raise as much money as possible to develop life-saving treatments for patients suffering from Leukemia, Lymphoma and other blood cancers. At last night's event I realized that I would be thrilled to see money donated to any one of the  candidates who were in attendance.

The absolute highlight of my night was meeting Emily Pepper, this year's Girl of the Year. She is an amazing eight year old, and I will post more about her and her story when I get some photos back from the event. It turns out she is a ballet lover, and she won my heart completely when she told me that Ballet San Jose's Nutcracker is better than San Francisco Ballet's.

I will add more information about this event in my next post, as I should soon receive photos from the evening, and this post has already gotten a bit long.

In the meantime, I should thank those of you who have already donated to my campaign. Friends and family from near and far made contributions within the first few hours that my fundraising website was online, and we even received a donation from "an Alaskan cancer survivor" named Dennis, whose identity is a mystery to me, but whose generosity touches and inspires me to do whatever I can to raise as much money as possible for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.