Colburn-Keenan Foundation

Cheers! To the Colburn-Keenan Foundation

Laurie Kelley October 27, 2014
The weather was spectacular in Simsbury, Connecticut for the annual “Wine by the Vine” fundraiser to support the Colburn-Keenan Foundation. I was happy to attend with my boyfriend Doug and met up with my brother Tim and his wife Lee. We also socialized with many friends from our hemophilia community including nonprofit friends, pharmaceutical and homecare rep friends and friends of friends!
For only a $50 admission ticket we were able to sample lovey and delicious wine and beer locally brewed by Rosedale Farm, where the event was held. It was fun to chat with friends, sample the goods, enjoy hot hors d’oeuvres and beautiful desserts, and listen to a folk singer from 3 pm – 6 pm.
Laurie Kelley with Sandy Williams of Novo Nordisk

The Colburn-Keenan Foundation is named in part after a legend in our community: Donald Colburn. Donald had hemophilia, HIV, and its complications and had already founded American Homecare Federation (AHF), a successful homecare company. Donald was responsible for kicking off NHF’s Campaign for a Cure back in 2000 with a half million dollar grant. They also had adopted a child with hemophilia from Eastern Europe. Sadly, Kathy passed away from cancer in May 2006 and Donald passed away from cancer in July 2006. The Colburn-Keenan Foundation, founded in 2006, represents their dream and a living legacy to their outstanding lives of philanthropy. The majority of their personal estates have gone into a trust to fund and sustain the Foundation, where amazingly 100% of monies raised will go directly to programs and services.

These services include providing financial assistance to individuals with chronic illnesses, with a priority placed on those living with a bleeding disorder. These include providing assistance with insurance premium, deductible, and co-pay expenses and assistance with all other socioeconomic expenses such as rent/mortgage, utilities, car insurance or repairs, medical travel, funeral expenses. And  the Foundation provides more!

Since its inception in 2006, the Foundation has provided a whopping: 1) $981,139 in individual assistance grants; 2) $188,000 in organization grants and 3) 118 scholarships totaling $544,000.

This generosity made it very easy for me to justify playing in the silent auction. Though  a fierce competitor beat me in the African Safari auction item, I did win James Taylor tickets (which I happily gave to my brother Tim and wife Lee, me being more a classic rock kind of girl; see my book review below) and Patriots tickets and a signed baseball by David Ross of the Red Sox, both of which I more than happily gave to sports-fan Doug. I was happy to take one of the many pumpkins home as my prize!

Congratulations to the stunning work of the Colburn-Keenan Foundation!

For more info: http://www.colkeen.org/

Good Book I Just Read

Slash by Slash [Kindle]

You’ve got to give Slash credit for just being alive. The former guitarist of the 90s band Guns N’Roses uses a pacemaker to keep himself going after the wretched excesses of life on the road in one of the most popular bands of their era. In this bio, Slash, born in England as Saul Hudson, the son of parents already steeped in the music industry, runs wild as a child in the streets of LA, becomes a defiant teen, develops a true passion for music and the guitar and becomes an accomplished guitarist, helping to form the band GNR. Debauchery describes the band’s lifestyle and impact as it acted out with drugs, alcohol and sex, trashing hotel rooms, causing problems for everyone including police and business owners, and eventually ripping themselves in two when the volatile and mercurial Axl Rose has a prolonged showdown with the often drug-induced and soft-spoken Slash. To this day they do not speak. Slash tells his tale factually and hides nothing, except for an in-depth analysis of what really ailed Rose and GNR. Slash may have been too doped up to know. The birth of his first son was the impetus to get clean once and for all and he has come out ahead. He is a talented guitarist (just saw him live this summer, up close), and has evolved with several bands, currently with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. A good read, easy and interesting, but also sad… that so many rock stars are bent on self-destruction. Here’s one who went to the brink—and lived to tell the tale. Three/five stars.








		

				

				

				

				

			
				Wine, Friends, a Foundation, A Legacy			
		

				

					
			Laurie Kelley		
				
			September 24, 2012		
				

		


I don’t often attend hemophilia functions in my own home territory because I am usually

traveling elsewhere for hemophilia. How nice it was to attend a wine tasting

event in Connecticut to benefit the Colburn-Keenan Foundation. This was all the

more special to me, because I knew the founders, Donald Colburn and Kathy

Keenan, who lived in my hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Many of us who

have been in the hemophilia community 10 years or more will remember Donald as

the man who donated half a million dollars to kick off NHF’s Campaign for the

Cure.




I drove almost

three hours to a lovely vineyard at Rosedale Farms and Vineyards in Simsbury, Connecticut. It was a perfect fall day for the event, and I was greeted by long time friends and colleagues Mark Zatyrka, who is Donald’s nephew, and his wife,

Sasha, who is executive director of the foundation now. Mark also has

hemophilia.






Laurie with brother Tim and sister-in-law Leslie






There were many old friends in attendance, and I convinced my brother Tim and sister-in-law Lee

to drive down from Springfield to join us. The Connecticut Hemophilia

Association staff was present, as were many local homecare and pharmaceutical

company reps, which helped support the event. There were many great wines to

try, wonderful hors d’oeuvres, cheese and fruit, and raffle prizes.






Laurie with hemophilia friends Jane and Chris Smith


But the best part of these events is hearing from the families who benefit. I work internationally, with impoverished families (and I mean like $1 a day income impoverished families), and sometimes it’s easy to dismiss or even forget that

there are families really hurting now in America. Jennifer, a mom from Connecticut, stood up and gave a wonderful testimony about how the Colburn-Keenan Foundation helped her family when they had tough times; her son now is thriving thanks to their financial support. I also want to thank the Foundation for making a donation to my own nonprofit, Save One Life, which

helped us meet our operating expenses.






And it’s really a great legacy from a great man and woman, a team, who devoted their lives to making a difference: and they are still making a difference even though they have both passed on. Read below to learn about the unique couple whose lives

were all about giving. And visit www.colkeen.org  to learn more about the Foundation.




Thanks to Mark, Sasha, and everyone for a wonderful evening!




From the website www.colkeen.org:




Donald E. Colburn, founder of the Colburn-Keenan Foundation,

Inc. was raised in Agawam and was a longtime resident of Springfield,

Massachusetts and Suffield, Connecticut. Donald’s life was one of outstanding

community service.




Donald was a past president, volunteer, and

supporter of the Kiwanis International Club of Greater Springfield and the

Cape. He supported the United Way of the Pioneer Valley, the Jimmy Fund,

Special Olympics, many of the first AIDS service organizations, including

Project Inform, AIDS Action, Camp Heartland, Camp Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, and

the Elizabeth Glasser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.




Donald also lived with severe hemophilia A

and many of its complications and, as a consequence, was committed to the

creation of a better world for individuals and families living with bleeding

disorders. Donald’s volunteer leadership activities spanned 35 years,  and included his years as Executive

Director of the New England Hemophilia Association (NEHA). His national

volunteer work included participation in the Federal Maternal and Child Health

Bureau’s Hemophilia Treatment Center grant review program; the Centers for

Disease Control’s Care Standards Committee and its Hemophilia/HIV Treatment

Center Compliance Site Visit program; and the National Hemophilia Foundation’s

(NHF’s) Blood Products Monitoring Committee, Blood Safety Committee, MANN

Committee, Advocacy Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, and It’s Time for

a Cure committee. He was a supporter of the Committee of Ten Thousand and

Hemophilia Foundation of America.




Kathy Ann Keenan, founder of the Colburn-Keenan Foundation,

Inc. was born in Queens, New York and was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Kathy Ann’s life was one of caring and giving. She was a generous benefactor to

many worthy projects and charities in the local community as well as several

regional and national organizations. These included the New England Hemophilia

Association, the National Hemophilia Foundation, the Entertainment Industry

Foundation’s National Colorectal Research Alliance, the Elizabeth Glasser

Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Project Inform, to name a few.




In 1982 Donald Colburn and Kathy Ann Keenan

married and began a life together of hard work and personal and corporate

responsibility. In 1989, they founded AHF, Inc., a homecare pharmacy.




Donald and Kathy Ann founded the

Colburn-Keenan Foundation as a means to perpetuate their hopes for and service

to the bleeding disorders community. The Foundation represents their life-long

commitment to supporting the emergency, medical, and educational needs of those

with bleeding and other chronic disorders. In addition, the Foundation supports

the work of community, regional, and national organizations involved in

projects and programs that benefit the bleeding disorders and chronic illness

communities.





		

				

				

		
				

				

					

		

				

			

						

				

			
HemaBlog Archives
		
		

			
		

				

				

				

			
Categories