Hi Friends!

This year, I am training with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training to complete the 2011 Goofy Challenge at Disney World! This means that I will be running a half marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday, January 8 and a full marathon (26.2 miles) on Sunday, January 9.

While this is completely Goofy, there IS an important reason behind it, and that, of course, is to raise $4,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As you know, all of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

I am running in honor and memory of several people, so let me tell you about my motivators: Last year, I ran for my friend, Chris Meislahn, who had recently been diagnosed with lymphoma. I am SO happy to report that Chris has been in remission since December 2009! The latest report is that, "he is back to looking like and feeling like his normal self." You see -- all of our hard work pays off!! So many fundraised dollars went toward the research and services that cumulatively allowed Chris to fight and overcome the cancer! THANK YOU to all who have contributed over the years!!

There is still a need, however, and this need is great. This is exemplified in the life of my 2010-2011 Honored Hero, Daryl Jamison. Daryl is a friend of mine from high school, and he has endured a difficult, cancer-ridden road since we were kids back then. In 2001, it was discovered that he had a brain tumor. He spent years dealing with the repercussions of this diagnosis, only to be met with another diagnosis last year. This time: Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Daryl is strong-willed and won't give up on this battle for his life. Even the strongest of us need help sometimes, though, and so I am asking that you support this fight against blood cancers of all kinds.

Whether you know someone who has kicked cancer to curb, like Chris, or someone who is continuing to fight every day, like Daryl, or even someone like my beloved childhood school bus driver, Sam Shields, who lost his battle... We're all affected by these diseases and we all can help to get rid of them, once and for all.

Please contribute as generously as you can, and know that your donations will go to help the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to fund life-saving research and to provide patient services that are needed by so many of our friends, family members and acquaintances.

Please let me know if there is someone you'd like me to add to my list of Honorees, and I will be proud to wear their names on my race-day shirt, to show our collective love and support for them and their individual battles with cancer. Some day, this list will include more Survivors than anything else, and THAT is why we do this!!

Thank you so much for your generosity and support.

It means so much to so many people.

THANKS!

Kristi :-)