Good Bye Washington!

Although our bike trip from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington D.C. was long, our stay in D.C. was quite brief – in fact, we were boarding a plane back home less than 24-hours after we arrived.

But since we did not have to be to the airport until 1:00 p.m., we decided to get up early, say goodbye to everyone, and see what we could of D.C. We brought German (from Mexico) with us, and the four of us spent two hours visiting the Jefferson Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument (from afar) and finally, the Vietnam Memorial. The last stop was especially moving as Todd’s dad is an Army veteran and he served in Vietnam for 22 months during the war. We were all grateful for the opportunity to see such renowned landmarks before finally heading home.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the whole point of the Team Sarcoma Bike Tour was to raise awareness of sarcoma and money for research during International Sarcoma Awareness Week (July 18-25). And the 45-member “core team” we were part of was not alone! Amazingly, preliminary counts show that over 14,000 people participated in Team Sarcoma events world-wide (there were over 85 events in 14 countries and 28 U.S. states!), and hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised this year alone to help fund research to eliminate this disease once and for all (for more information about these events, visit http://www.team-sarcoma.net/). On behalf of all people touched by sarcoma (unofficially of course!), I want to send a big thank you to Bruce and Beverly Shriver, who created the Liddy Shriver Initiative and the Team Sarcoma Bike Tour in memory of their daughter, who was taken by Ewings sarcoma at the age of 37. They chose to turn their grief into motivation to make a difference for others, even though nothing can bring Liddy back, and that is an incredible gift. Also, special thanks to Mary Sorens, who is not only a survivor herself, but who has volunteered countless hours of her time (as well as her beautiful photographs) to this incredible cause. Finally, thank you to Donna Lee Owens, who sponsored Todd and gave us the opportunity to particpate in this once-in-a-lifetime event. It was an experience we will never forget.

For our part, “Team Andrews” raised approximately $3,590 to contribute to the Liddy Shriver Initiative – 98% of which will go directly to fund osteosarcoma research! Thank you so much everyone for your generosity! I believe there are still some donations that have not been reported to us, but if you don’t see your name on the right-side column of donors on this blog, please let me know! As I’ve mentioned previously, your donations really do make a difference, as we saw first-hand last week in learning about Dr. Loeb's and Dr. Toretsky's promising new research. THANK YOU all of you for being such an important part of this event. Words cannot express how much it means to Scott, Todd and I.

Love,
Karen

P.S. For an official recap of the tour, check out http://www.team-sarcoma.net/2009-events/3804