3/25/10 - "GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME" Blog Entry

I have the most incredible news to share today! The Kelly Heinz-Grundner Brain Tumor Foundation (KHG) has merged with the National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS), the nation’s largest non-profit organization serving the brain tumor community through research, patient support and advocacy.

I cannot even begin to tell you how personally excited I am about this opportunity! Honestly, it is like a dream come true for me. As many of you know, when I launched KHG in 2005, a year after my wife and best friend, Kelly, passed away from a brain tumor, my deepest desire was to fight back by raising awareness and bringing the spotlight to this terribly dark disease. While we have been highly successful in our efforts to date, we now will have the opportunity to share our message with a nationwide audience – one that it would take us years to reach on our own.

This is a HUGE WIN for all of us, so I hope you take a moment to consider the magnitude of what WE together have accomplished. Because of you and your generous support over the years, our trademark slogan – GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME® – has a very real opportunity to become the nationwide call-to-action for brain tumor awareness. If that happens, people across the country will be in a better position to learn about this disease. As a result, they will be empowered to be advocates for themselves and have a better chance of getting the help they need if, God forbid, symptoms arise. What’s more, with a nationwide campaign, we will be able to rally more support for those who have been diagnosed and more funding to do the research to end this disease once and for all.

With that said, my gratitude today is profound. First, I am thankful to God for giving me this work to do and for being with me every step of the way as I did it. Second, I am thankful for those whose heroic battles created the sense of urgency in all of us to reach for this important goal. Third, I am thankful to everyone here at the foundation – our staff, board of directors and volunteers – for their tireless hours of work that made it possible to reach this important milestone. Finally, and most of all, I am thankful for you – KHG’s 5,000+ supporters – for your donations, your trust and your confidence over the past five years. Simply stated, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Of course, our journey doesn’t end here. In fact, in many ways, now is when the hard work really begins. While we will have the backing of the nation’s largest brain tumor organization and that will help tremendously, the truth is that the awareness battle will still happen primarily on the front-lines and will only succeed if each and every one of us does our part. As such, our individual efforts cannot stop nor do we have the luxury of resting on our accomplishments. We must push forward and continue relentlessly in our fight against this disease. As we all know, this disease will never take a day off. This means we can’t either.

For more information about the merger, please view the following links.

Press Release: http://www.khgfoundation.org/KHG-NBTS_merger/pr.php
FAQs: http://www.khgfoundation.org/KHG-NBTS_merger/faqs.php

PS: In case you are wondering, our Third Annual GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME® Brain Tumor Awareness Walk at Dravo Plaza at Riverfront Wilmington remains slated for Saturday, May 1st from 2-5pm. If you haven’t already, you can register for this event at the following link.

http://www.khgfoundation.org/walk10

While it will be hard to top our previous performances, I am happy to say that we are gearing up for an even bigger and better event this year. What’s more, I hope everyone will come out to meet some of the great folks from NBTS who are coming to the event and to see and hear first-hand why I am so excited about this new relationship. In the meantime, if you are interested, you can learn more about NBTS by visiting http://www.braintumor.org.