Last year I summited Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for the nonprofit I founded, Save One Life. We’re starting to corner the market on “adventure fundraisers.” This year? We conquer the
American highways with “Wheels for the World”!
On Monday, June 18, Barry Haarde, a 46-year-old Texan living successfully with hemophilia A,
HIV and hepatitis, from Texas, will start a 3,667 miles coast-to-coast bike ride from Astoria, Oregon to
Portsmouth, New Hampshire to raise funds for Save One Life. This is the first time someone with hemophilia will bike across America for charity!
Save One Life is a Massachusetts-based international nonprofit that provides direct financial aid to impoverished people with bleeding disorders in developing countries. Founded in 2001, Save One Life provides one-to-one sponsorships for almost 1,000 beneficiaries in ten countries. In addition, it provides funding for camps, scholarships for students and support for outreach to locate patients in rural areas. Barry is one of our dedicated sponsors.
Please help support Barry!
Pledge by the mile or by the state; make a one-time donation or sponsor a child—all proceeds go towards operations and programs to help Save One Life’s mission. Thanks to Presenting Sponsor Baxter Healthcare International for helping to make this possible!
It was a rainy weekend in Boston, and I was so sad I couldn’t join the Hemophilia Walk in Boston yesterday. But, I’m happy to say that New England Hemophilia Association surpassed their goal of $100,000! And this all happened in a downpour!
There are more walks happening all across the country to help raise money for hemophilia, for the local organizations who help us in our own states, for the National Hemophilia Foundation that lobbies for us and provides research, and even Save One Life, the nonprofit I founded, may benefit!
If you want to help kids with hemophilia, especially those suffering in poverty overseas, here’s how!
Bayer is sponsoring “Virtual Walks” throughout the year, from the comfort of your own home, and Save One Life, which now sponsors over 1,000 children and young adults with hemophilia in developing countries, may benefit directly from it!
Bayer is proud to announce the 2nd Annual Bayer Virtual Walk for Hemophilia! Committed to helping support those who live with bleeding disorders, Bayer, through the Virtual Walk, is offering sponsorship funds to the National Hemophilia Foundation* (NHF), its local participating chapters, and to Save One Life (www.saveonelife.net). This year, the top 5 participating local NHF chapters with the most virtual walkers will receive sponsorship funds, as follows:
First Place: $15,000 Second Place: $10,000 Third Place: $5,000 Fourth Place: $2,500
Bayer will also award up to $30,000 to the National Office of the NHF in New York City, and up to $7,000 to Save One Life.
If your local chapter is not one of the participating chapters in this year’s Virtual Walk, you can still be involved! Just choose to walk for the National Office of the NHF. You can then share your virtual walker on Facebook and invite everyone you know.
Together we will help raise awareness for bleeding disorders across the country!
(My two cents: And help directly those suffering in countries where no factor is available)
Great Book I Just Read
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
A crazed, young scientist named Griffin has discovered the means to make himself invisible. With the power that
comes from not being detected (or so he thinks) he unleashes a reign of terror in England. He begins to torment unsuspecting people, stealing, ransacking, sometimes in a sadistic way. This is a very dark novel, extremely well written of course—it is by the Master and Founder of Science Fiction himself. Griffin eventually tracks down colleague Kemp, shares his plans to dominate the world, and his malicious joy terrifies Kemp.
First published in 1897, The Invisible Man retains its thrilling plot, pace and characters even now. It’s not as good as War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, but it’s short enough to be read in a single sitting, is stimulating, entertaining and sharp. The science behind how he becomes invisible is great! The pace of the book pick up at the end to a great climax. Four/five stars.
Last Tuesday I dusted off my salwar kameez outfit from Pakistan, hopped on a plane with executive director Martha Hopewell of Save One Life, our child sponsorship nonprofit, and went to New York City for a wonderful fundraiser called “Bollywood Chic,” hosted in the art studio of Hunt Slonem.
The studio takes your breath away: cavernous at 15,000 sf, and filled from ceiling to floor with framed art, statues, and even a museum quality collection of butterflies that was stunning. In the center of the studio: bird cages filled with colorful macaws and doves. Hunt’s specialty is painting birds; you can see his famed parrots on a new Tiffany set of serving ware. The birds are raucous when not being fawned over; they demand attention by screeching. This added an exotic flavor to the evening!
How did we snag the goodwill of an artist of Hunt’s calibre? Through board member Tara Reddi, who is vice president of the Marlborough Gallery in New York, and has a nephew with hemophilia in India.
Guests arrived around 6:30 and stayed till 9, sampling some wonderful Indian-style food, and wine at our bar, and listening to Bollywood soundtrack. Guests could wander freely throughout the studio, which is subdivided into different rooms, each with a theme. The Lincoln room is filled with Hunt’s portraits of Lincoln in many colors. Another room is filled top to bottom with framed paintings of rabbits. Another room is filled with Greek or Italian statues. Another room contained a massive round table and filled with candles, looking like an invitation to a seance! Guests were really intrigued by the decor!
We were pleased to have with us Dr. Ranjan Kulkarni from the Nasik Chapter of the Indian Federation of Hemophilia. She is our program partner there, and has enrolled many children with hemophilia in Save One Life. She just happened to be visiting in New Jersey, which worked out perfectly! The fundraiser gave her a chance to meet two other doctors and sponsors: Dr. Lucy and Dr. Shipra, both attired in lovely Indian dresses!
Save One Life now sponsors over 550 children in nine countries, giving them funding that they would normally never receive. Funding is used for transportation to clinic, to buy medicine, and to pay school fees. The nonprofits that administer the program–our program partners–check in regularly with the children, to ensure they are doing well. So more than just a charity, we are guaranteeing these kids get seen, are known and are helped.
Mena, Dr. Ranjan Kulkarni and Laurie
Our deepest thanks to Hunt Slonem for generously allowing us the privilege and pleasure to spend an evening at his studio. Thanks to Tara Reddi for organizing this marvelous event, which required a lot of hard work. Thanks to all the guests who showed up despite the dreary weather, many of whom were friends and patrons of Tara’s and Hunt, and who supported the fundraiser. And thanks to my friends at NHF, whom I was so happy to see present!
Many thanks to two companies who helped underwrite the event: CSL Behring and Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals. All proceeds of the event will go towards our India program, where the bulk of our beneficiaries are located. I’ll be traveling to India in September to check on our program and will be sure to keep everyone posted. Namaste!
For more information or to sponsor a child in need: www.SaveOneLife.net Also see: www.cslbehring.com, www.inspirationbio.com, www.marlboroughgallery.com
Not that kind of high, but really high, like Mt. Ranier high. Jeff Salantai, who has hemophilia, and Eric Hill, president and founder of BioRx, a home care company, undertook the grueling challenge of climbing Mt. Rainier, in order to raise funds for two nonprofits—one of them mine!
Mt. Rainier is the tallest glaciated mountain in the lower 49 states–only Alaska has one higher. It is located just outside of Ashford, Washington. Jeff is an account manager for BioRx and lives in Austin, Texas. Eric writes, “After more than 7 months of training and preparation, we attempted to summit the mountain the second week of August. We received tons of thoughts and prayers from many of you and we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who called or wrote wishing us luck. We summited the mountain at 7:20 am on Saturday, August 15, at 14,410 feet….so wiped out we could barely function (only to realize we had about 7 more hours of continuous trekking to get back down) but we did it.”
Most amazingly, is that Eric has pledged to match funds with anyone who wants to donate for their climb, for Save One Life, my nonprofit that sponsors over 500 children with hemophilia in developing countries.
Jeff Salantai
Both men agreed that this is was the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Eric writes, “I’ve run a marathon, done 4 more 23 mile runs, completed 5 Olympic length triathlons, climbed 2 other 14,000 ft mountains (no glaciers) and raced in 100k road bike races. Jeff likewise has done some pretty spectacular physical challenges like climbing the second and third largest mountains in the US, rock climbed some amazing cliffs, and has competed in 100 mile bike races on a routine basis. We both agreed that they all paled in comparison to the effort and mental trial of this experience.”
Incredibly, they are “99% sure” that Jeff is the first person living with hemophilia to summit Mt. Rainier. Jeff may now hold the record for the highest summit in the world by someone with hemophilia.
Their donations are so needed. I am visiting countries that no one in the hemophilia community has visited before and we are hoping to do outreach to find the people with hemophilia, who are as yet unidentified and suffering in silence. Please help, and show your support for the tremendous and risky fundraiser that Eric and Jeff undertook. I have never heard of any fundraiser quite like theirs!
Jeff and Eric write, “Thanks to everyone for everything you’ve done and the support you’ve provided to both of us.”
Congratulations to Jeff and Eric, two courageous and determined men with hearts of gold. 
HemaBlog Archives
Categories
LA Kelley Communications - You are leaving our site
You have clicked on one of our advertiser’s links. Our provision of a link to
any other website or location is for your convenience and does not signify
our endorsement of such other website or location or its contents.
Would you like to continue?
Download Now
Would you like to be added to our email list to continue to recieve future editions of PEN in PDF format?
Last year I summited Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for the nonprofit I founded, Save One Life. We’re starting to corner the market on “adventure fundraisers.” This year? We conquer the
Please help support Barry!
