TBBCF Newsletter 2008 Summer Edition

Four ways you can help fight breast cancer and make a real difference.

Get out to Walk Across Southeastern CT on October 4, 2008. Whether you walk the full marathon or participate in a two-person or five-person relay, there's an option for everyone this year!

VOLUNTEER

Volunteers are the heart and soul of TBBCF. Not only are volunteers vital to the success of the Walk Across SECT, but the foundation is dependent on volunteers like you to support business and administrative functions, walker recruitment, fundraising, and more.

SPONSOR OR DONATE

In addition to company and individual donated goods and services, sponsors play a critical role in helping to achieve the goals of TBBCF by providing financial support to cover administrative costs. The 2008 sponsorship program has expanded to include additional levels of sponsors. See inside for more information.

SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS

Spread the word. We are a local foundation making a grand scale difference in funding breast cancer research. Whether you're planning to walk, volunteer, sponsor or donate tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family to join you!

P.O. Box 785
New London, CT 06320
860-245-0402
tbbcf@sbcglobal.net

Community Associates Expanding TBBCF Horizons

The Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation is honored to welcome a variety of exceptional organizations and individuals from all around our community who support our goal in a variety of unique ways. Each organization, independently organized and championed, has offered brilliant ideas for fundraising offers and events to support the foundation. Our community associates provide the TBBCF with the opportunity to reach an extensive and varied audience, by introducing the important work we do to fund breast cancer research. These extraordinary individuals and groups have generously committed to donate a percentage of their profits to the cause. These neighborhood initiatives provide our community associates an opportunity to make a positive impact on the fight against breast cancer.

Please join us in supporting these community organizations and events:

LIFE AFTER THE STORM

Hardly anything in life is more stressful than a scary diagnosis: sitting across from a doctor who is telling you that the test results came back, and yes, it is cancer. And yet, according to Melissa Burns of Guilford, a woman who's lived through that moment, the most difficult part of the breast cancer journey begins when the medical treatment ends.

WALKING ACROSS THE CURRICULA

"Finding Solutions To Cancer as We Find Solutions in Math!" Guided as the brainchild of teacher Jay Gionet, students at the East Lyme Middle School began an interdisciplinary community service project in September of 2007, where students were solving investigative problems in school as they helped others solve a real-world problem known as breast cancer. This year a number of other schools across the country have joined in the math-driven project.

W.I.S.E. (Wise Individualized Senior Experience) PROGRAM

Wise Individualized Senior Experience, Inc. (WISE Services) is a not-for-profit organization with administrative and mentoring expertise earned in three decades of work. The staff assists schools in developing, maintaining and renewing high school senior experience programs tailored to the needs of individual districts. Individualized senior experience programs offer a unique opportunity for partnerships between schools, community agencies and businesses to create a comprehensive learning experience. In 2008, three seniors at Old Saybrook High School developed W.I.S.E. projects with fundraising proceeds benefiting TBBCF.

BREAST CANCER GOLF TOURNAMENTS

Barbara O'Connell has launched a campaign to recruit golf clubs to join TBBCF's fight against breast cancer. She has reached out to a number of private and semi-private golf clubs throughout New England and even as far away as Florida. Her goal is to recruit at least two clubs per year. If you play golf and think your club would be interested in supporting this great organization, you can contact Barbara O'Connell at tbbcf@sbcglobal.net. You can also call the Foundation office: 860-245-0402.

DEEP RIVER SNACKS

Deep River Snacks, a family owned and operated gourmet snack food company located in Old Lyme, CT, is pleased to announce that they have joined together with the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation to promote breast cancer awareness and to raise money to find a cure.

PIKME GOES PINK

PIKME, a line of stationery products, has designed a special line, The Pink Cherry Tree collection including boxed stationery, gift tags, and stickers, all imprinted with a beautiful image of a spring-time cherry tree in bloom.

bellaPerlina SPECIAL EDITION BREAST CANCER BRACELET & LARIAT

bellaPerlina is the creation of Andrea Panullo and Betsy Drake Turner. Together they design and create individual jewelry pieces on site. They have designed a bracelet and lariat in support of Brest Buds of the Shoreline in their Walk Across Southeastern Connecticut.

BOWERBIRD GIFT WRAP PROGRAM

The Bowerbird in Old Lyme has selected the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation as the recipient of the proceeds from their 2008 gift-wrap program.

The program runs from November 1, 2007 through October 31, 2008.

BJ's WHOLESALE CLUB SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER

BJ's Wholesale Club is offering four great reasons to join or renew your current membership!

Get $10 off their $45 annual membership fee
Receive an additional three (3) months of free membership (if you are a current member, BJ's will add 15 months to your current expiration date)
Receive a free second membership card for a household member
PLUS BJ's will donate $5 of your membership fee to The Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation.

Inspired Events Model for High School Senior Projects
By Cecily Faenza
Communications and Marketing Summer Intern, University of Connecticut
July 27, 2008

Around the time "senioritis" usually kicks in, this past Spring three Old Saybrook High School seniors and one Lyme-Old Lyme High School senior were hard at work on projects benefiting the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation (TBBCF) and cancer research.

On March 15, Michelle Ruth hosted "Ski for a Cure" at Ski Sundown in New Hartford. A group of 20 volunteers and 33 skiers participated in timed runs on the race course. Seven racers were Old Saybrook residents, while the others heard about the race through Ruth's winter promotion at Ski Sundown. Each racer donated $20 and received a discounted ticket to use the ski slopes that day. "Ski for a Cure" generated $894.45 to benefit TBBCF.

Planning for the project began in August before Ruth's senior year. Her sister, a member of the ski team at Ski Sundown, was a member of Terri Brodeur's Girl Scout troop. These two connections prompted Ruth to contact her senior project advisor and TBBCF about the project.

Ruth hopes that incoming seniors will take on the project and make it an annual event to benefit TBBCF. As the founder, she is working on compiling a guide to make planning easier for her successors.

While Ruth was planning "Ski for a Cure", two of her classmates, Mary Sirico and Stephanie Turi were busy organizing their senior project, the seventh annual "Walk to Cure Cancer". The venture began after Relay for Life deemed Old Saybrook too small to support a walk. On the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, teachers, students, cancer survivors and their families joined together in an all night walkathon.

This year's walk raised $31,000, topping last year's high of $27,000. Almost three-quarters of the school participated, with 300 students making up 30 teams. Teams set up tents and walked from 6pm to 6am. Each team, which had ten members, was required to have at least one walker at all times. When students weren't walking, a moon bounce, zip line, and music were available to entertain walkers and spectators.

Sirico and Turi applied for the chance to plan the walk and worked throughout the year with their advisor and principal. According to Sirico, the girls "pushed to keep the walk a memorial…to make a dedication, not just an event for kids to hang out."

Seven cancer survivors attended the walk, with one providing the opening speech. Four years ago, Terri Brodeur spoke at the event. In the three years since, a portion of the event proceeds have been directed to TBBCF. This year, $4,000 was donated to the foundation. The balance of fundraising dollars provides support to families fighting all types of cancer within the Old Saybrook community.

Lyme-Old Lyme's Anneke Sharp has wanted to become a fashion designer since she was eight years old. So naturally, the choice for her senior project was influenced by her interest in fashion. She collected donated clothes and fabrics, transformed them into new clothes, hosted a fashion show, and auctioned off her creations to benefit TBBCF.

She began by sifting through donated clothing for items that she believed to be useful or inspirational. After hours of sketching and draping fabrics over her dress form, her creations began to take shape. Once the garment was complete, Sharp selected a model and altered it to fit. Halfway through the project, she began to focus on details of the event, such as time, location, runway logistics, and everything in between.

Sharp discovered TBBCF through her mother's friend after a discussion about her senior project. Sharp had determined that she wanted to donate the money to a breast cancer foundation, and was impressed with the foundation's impact throughout the community.

The show was held June 1, at the Congregational Church in Old Lyme. Sharp said the most stressful part was balancing school and work with her project, but as she put it, "it all came together in the end." And indeed it did. The auction and fashion show generated $700 to benefit TBBCF.

Both Old Saybrook High School and Lyme-Old Lyme High School require senior projects as a way for students to learn something new outside the curriculum or apply skills they learned in the classroom. In Old Saybrook, the WISE Individual Senior Experience project is a step beyond a senior project and is voluntary. All three girls had to complete a daily journal and give a presentation in order to complete their WISE projects.

All four young women will be headed to college in the fall. Ruth plans to major in biology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sharp will be attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles to study Fashion Design. Sirico is headed to Western Connecticut State University for Communications while Turi will study Nursing at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island.

If you are interested in selecting TBBCF as the beneficiary of your senior project contact the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation at tbbcf@sbcglobal.net.

Attention Fundraising Divas - the gal to beat might be a guy!

Eric with his children (from left) Megan, Erin & Matthew
Eric Bauman had to reach deep when competing at the Olympic Triathlon in New York City on July 20, but thoughts of his late friends, Terri and Tim Brodeur, propelled him forward in the blistering heat.

My quads cramped up, and I started thinking, 'I'm not stopping, I'm running through it, and then I started thinking back to Tim and Terri and some of the pain that they went through, and that brings inspiration,' " says Bauman, who raised almost $7,000 for the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation for his triathlon efforts, making him the guy the gals will have to beat to be the top fund-raiser this year.

Bauman, the Executive Director to Finance at Pfizer Inc, has been raising funds for the TBBCF since its inception in 2006. In all, he has collected and handed over more than $10,000 to the nonprofit that sends 100 percent of every dollar it collects directly to breast cancer researchers.

"I have to be optimistic about a cure," says Bauman, a father of three who makes his home in East Lyme and befriended Tim Brodeur more than a decade ago.

"The reason I work at Pfizer is that the work we do helps people's lives," he says. "And the work we can do personally -- donating time and money to help a cause - we have to believe that it will make a difference. And we have to have hope and optimism."

And Bauman certainly does.

He and Tim Brodeur worked together, and later socialized and met each other's families. When Terri Brodeur died from breast cancer in October 2005, the Baumans were living in England where Eric was working for Pfizer. But he had kept in touch with Tim through calls and e-mails and knew how difficult Terri's death was on Tim.

Bauman didn't participate in the TBBCF's Walk Across Southeastern Connecticut, but he competed in the Pfizer Triathlon in 2006 and again in 2007, and raised $2,000 each time for the foundation. This year, Bauman decided to step up the challenge and his fundraising, and will deposit almost $7,000 in TBBCF coffers for his efforts in NYC on July 20: a 1-mile swim in the Hudson River, a 25-mile bike race into the Bronx, and 6.2-mile run up 72nd St. and through Central Park.

All on a wicked hot July day. Throughout the grueling times of the triathlon, Bauman kept the Brodeurs in mind and used their challenges to keep him focused and on target.

"Tim was someone who definitely put others before himself. He was one of the best people you would ever meet," he says. "So fundraising for me is recognizing the tragedy of how breast cancer took two lives."

Tim Brodeur passed away last January. His brother said he never recovered from the loss of his wife.

Bauman was inspired to do more for the TBBCF after Tim's death.

The 41-year-old has always been competitive, so he decided to up the personal challenge with the Olympic Triathlon.

"With what happened to Tim, I had the added motivation," he says. And contributors were generous to the cause, particularly those who knew Tim and Terri.

"They were just a very special family. A family that was special and caring," Bauman says.

And in Bauman's eyes, the TBBCF and the volunteers who run it are equally endearing.

He believes the foundation could tip the $1 million mark this year in contributions to breast cancer research.

"That's pretty amazing from a handful of people coming together," he says. "It's really spectacular."

The challenge now is for others to raise the bar that Bauman has set. Each walk marathon participant or TBBCF contributor has their own reason for supporting the cause. Many have a personal connection to breast cancer, having lost a loved one or suffered the disease themselves.

And many others have been touched by the story of Norma Logan, who created the foundation in memory of her new friend Terri Brodeur, just months before Logan succumbed to breast cancer herself. Logan steadfastly believed that every penny raised for the cause should go directly to breast cancer research.

A majority of people will support the cause through the walk marathon, but others, like Bauman, will raise funds in other ways. The link that binds us all is a commitment to finding a cure. That is motivation enough.

Real-life lesson greatly benefits cancer research
The Day Perspective
By Ann Baldelli, The Day, Associate Editorial Page Editor
July 20, 2008

Jay Gionet together with his parents
at the East Lyme Middle School Walk-a thon in 2007
It should come as no surprise that Jay Gionet is an Eagle Scout.

The one time nuclear engineer at the Millstone nuclear power station gave up that career more than five years ago when he decided he was better suited as a schoolteacher.

This is the same Jay Gionet who founded the Children's Museum of Southeastern Connecticut 16 years ago and who co-founded the public trust that did the research, hired the design firm and helped to secure funding for the very popular 1.2-mile Niantic Boardwalk.

That Jay Gionet decided to leave engineering and begin teaching is a godsend for all the students who have had the opportunity to sit in his classroom. He's not your typical schoolteacher; he's extraordinary. And I mean no disrespect to all the other hard-working teachers who might take offense with that comment.

It's just that I've met very few people as driven as Jay Gionet.

A good deed he set out to do more than a year ago has morphed into something as big as the children's museum and boardwalk. He's raising money for breast cancer research now, and a lot of it.

In the spring of 2007 he was looking for something to do to honor his parents who were both going to turn 80 that April. His mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years earlier, so Gionet and his wife, Mary, decided to do the 26.2-mile walk marathon for the New London-based Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation (TBBCF) and raise $2,000 for the organization in his parents' honor.

As he was training for the walk, Gionet happened upon the idea of using a walk marathon as a real-life math lesson for his eighth-grade students to teach linear equations. The Pearson Prentice Hall book he used at school devised the lesson around a fictitious walkathon. Why not make it real, thought Gionet, and use the pledges, donations and miles walked to teach linear equations?

Some of the other teachers at East Lyme Middle School joined him and last September 204 students raised $17,000 for the TBBCF, which funnels 100 percent of the money it raises directly to breast cancer researchers. This year Gionet will repeat the walkathon and has set a goal of $20,000.

The original math lesson he envisioned last fall ultimately became interdisciplinary, encompassing science, health, language arts and social studies. By all accounts, the walkathon was a huge success academically and as a civics lesson.

But in typical Jay Gionet fashion, the story doesn't end there. Publisher Pearson Prentice Hall learned what Gionet had done and has decided to promote his idea.

The publisher will send a newsletter to teachers nationwide before the start of the new school year, explaining Gionet's project and telling other teachers how they can emulate it. (All the information teachers need is on the TBBCF Web site, under the "our community" heading. The address is terribrodeurbreastcancerfoundation.org). Gionet's goal is that at least one school in every state will mimic what he has done and donate $20,000 to the TBBCF.

"It's a great organization. And that would be $1 million to help fight breast cancer," he says.

And when Eagle Scout Jay Gionet sets his mind to something, well, anyone who knows him will tell you, it usually happens.

That's a good thing.

Golfer, Marathoner, Activist and Fight Promoter... what could be next for Barb O'Connell?

Barbara O'Connell is one of the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation (TBBCF) year round volunteers. The TBBCF volunteers, known as the Foundation Leaders, help run this all-volunteer organization. As a Foundation Leader, Barb finds herself wearing several hats.

Several years ago this savvy business entrepreneur traded-in a business career reinventing herself as golfer, marathoner, activist and fight promoter... in that order.

O'Connell lives in Old Lyme with her husband Dan. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend. Like many of us, her family has been personally impacted by breast cancer.

In 2005 O'Connell took up the game of golf. She and her husband are members at the Black Hall Club, a private member-owned golf club located in Old Lyme. O'Connell participated in the Club's 2006 Breast Cancer Tournament. The proceeds from that event went to a well-known national breast cancer organization. After investigating the Black Hall event, O'Connell learned that many private golf clubs host similar breast cancer tournaments.

In 2006, O'Connell registered as a marathoner in the TBBCF Walk across Southeastern Connecticut. Her primary motivation for taking on the challenge of walking a full marathon and raising $1,000 for breast cancer research was to honor the memory of the foundation namesake, Terri Brodeur. O'Connell was instantly taken by the TBBCF pledge to direct 100 percent of all donation dollars to breast cancer research.

It was during this period she found herself evolving into the activist and fight promoter. The wheels starting turning in her entrepreneurial head!

In 2007, O'Connell, along with another member, Flo Hurley, was successful in convincing the Black Hall organizers to redirect the breast cancer tournament proceeds to TBBCF. She was able to gain a similar commitment from the Old Lyme Country Club, one of the oldest private country clubs in Connecticut.

It was then O'Connell... the fight promoter ... realized that given the TBBCF promise to direct all donation dollars to breast cancer research, she could probably recruit even more private clubs to join the fight and direct their breast cancer tournament proceeds to the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation.

Barbara O'Connell is on a roll. She has launched a campaign to recruit other golf clubs to join TBBCF's fight against breast cancer. O'Connell has submitted proposals to a number of private and semi-private golf clubs throughout New England and even as far away as Florida. Her goal is to recruit at least two clubs per year.

In 2008, Fox Hopyard Golf Club in East Haddam joined the Black Hall Club and Old Lyme Country Club in directing proceeds from their ladies breast cancer tournament to TBBCF. This year she also gained a commitment from the Stonington Country Club to support TBBCF.

A number of golf enthusiasts and supporters of TBBCF have asked O'Connell if there are any plans for organizing breast cancer tournaments at some of the semi-private clubs. If you play golf and think your club would be interested in supporting this great organization, you can contact Barbara O'Connell at tbbcf@sbcglobal.net. You can also call the Foundation office: 860-245-0402.

Don't think O'Connell will stop at golf tournaments... she has already taken notice of local business who ...especially during breast cancer awareness campaigns in October... are directing proceeds from sales to large breast cancer organization and not TBBCF. Her new goal is to approach some of these companies and to help them see the merit in directing these fundraising proceeds to TBBCF whose promise is to direct 100 percent of all donation dollars to breast cancer research.

TBBCF is a nonprofit group dedicated to providing critical funding to researchers in search of a cure for breast cancer. Our pledge is to direct 100 percent of total gross fundraising dollars toward breast cancer research.