Fundraiser

Wheels for the World!

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!

Walk the [Blood] Line

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.

A Bittersweet Celebration


I had the great privilege to attend a private event that was to have been a fundraiser for friend and US Senate candidate Bob Massie, of Journey fame. For you hemophilia young-ones reading this, Journey was I think the very first book on hemophilia ever written. Certainly the first written by parents of a child with hemophilia. The book details life for one family in the 1950s and 60s, who later became famous as parents Robert and Suzanne authored and published the classic Nicholas and Alexandria.

But back to the event. The entertainment for the evening was the humble, humorous and infinitely talented Noel Paul Stookey of the incredible group Peter, Paul and Mary, perhaps best known for their song “Puff the Magic Dragon.” I arrived early to the stunning home of Mark and Becky Levin in Boston–the traffic was light and the weather warm. What a great night to hang out in Boston!

Noel was so gracious and unpretentious. He and Bob have been friends for 30 years, since Bob was young. The group became friends of the Massies, and I recall from the book Journey, how Noel would sing to Bob when Bob was trying to survive terrible bleeding episodes. And here they were together again!

We were all very sad to hear that night that Bob would the very next day announce his withdrawal from the US Senate race. He gave it a good fight, and spent countless hours traveling the state, meeting everyday people, and rallying people to hear his thoughts about our country and his plans to represent Massachusetts. As someone who suffered, truly suffered, with hemophilia, then HIV and hepatitis, he really could speak out on issues of chronic healthcare. Bob is incredibly intelligent, down-to-earth, educated and passionate. He has already had an amazingly accomplished life, but still wishes to do more in public service. What a hero he is to us all!


He read his withdrawal speech, which included: “I know how hard people are struggling today. In a hundred speeches I have defended the right of every citizen to a good home, a good school, a good doctor, and a good job. I have also said that despite the difficulties we are facing today, we must not forget our opportunities and responsibilities for tomorrow.” And towards the end, “We all have a role to play in this. This is an extraordinary state filled with extraordinary people and we are capable of extraordinary achievements. I plan to play my part moving forward.”

We sincerely hope this means he will return to public life, for if anyone could represent the needs of those with hemophilia and chronic disorders, it’s Bob Massie.

After his speech, Bob and Noel played a song together; Noel on guitar and Bob on banjo. Guests offered their tributes to Bob and congratulated him on his efforts and praised him for his dedication. All in all, a wonderful evening, filled with gratitude to Bob, pride in our state.

To read Bob Massie’s Speech, please visit www.BobMassie.org

Great Book I Just Read
A Hole in Our Gospel
Richard Stearns

Stearns, the president of World Vision, offers an inspiring call to action to help the world’s poor. He attempts to answer the question, “What does God expect of us?” He does not let fellow Christians off the hook just because they go to church, know the Bible, attend Bible study classes and help their neighbors. He wants them to take part in a social revolution to save the world, specifically, to help those in need in Africa. Stearns shares his startling story about life as a high-rolling, wealthy CEO of Lenox, the provider of luxury china products. When tapped to be the next CEO of World Vision, Sterns had to make a difficult choice: uproot his five children and wife to Seattle, and take an enormous cut in pay and lose all his corporate perks and benefits. After much soul searching, he accepted. He shares what he has experienced in his job, along with his theology of Christianity in action.

It’s a compelling read, and certainly makes you look at your own life, your possession (how much do we truly need in this life anyway? What would we really miss if we gave more to help the poor?) and your beliefs about the poor. It’s not flawless, and some of the reading gets quite heavy-handed. A book review on The Gospel Coalition website says, “The Hole in Our Gospel is also theologically flawed and economically misguided… but its overall charge to care for the poor and put our faith into action is a good and necessary challenge.”

And despite taking a pay cut, Stearns still takes home a healthy $400,000 annual salary; World Vision is also not without criticisms of how the $800 million organization is run in the field. Still, you can’t doubt the author’s sincerity and depth of his calling. I don’t agree with his hero-worship of Bono; and the pages and pages and pages of glowing testimonials in the beginning actually cause the antithesis of purpose—I was very suspicious of any book that must call so much attention to itself. Why not allow the reader just to read and form their own opinion first without biasing them? But I read, and was profoundly moved as I had just returned from Africa, have seen what he has seen, and believe what he believes about social justice and about how we can each do more to help those in poverty. There’s a lot of theological interpretation you can argue, as he quotes and interprets the Bible throughout, but his social message is loud and clear, and he is a man who is walking the talk. He visits the poor; he strives to solve their problems; he does it with love; he makes results. Kudos to him! Three stars.

Namaste from New York!


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

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