Nana's Heroes

Pancake Breakfast

2009-08-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Nana's Heroes will be holding a pancake breakfast to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on Saturday, August 22, 2009 from 8am until 10am at Max & Erma's in Lancaster, Ohio.

Pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee will be served along with all the good pancake fixin's.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased ahead of time by contacting Nana's Heroes at 740-687-6242 and speaking to our team captain, Jay Mattlin. Tickets can also be purchased at the door for $6 the day of. Keep in mind though that we can only sell 100 tickets at the door that morning.

Details:

Max & Erma's Lancaster
2703 N. Memorial Drive
Lancaster, Ohio 43130
8am until 10am
(740) 687-6242 - Office for tickets

If you are unable to come to the pancake breakfast but would still like to help us raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, please visit:

http://pages.lightthenight.org/coh/CntlOhio09/NanasHeroes

Thanks for your support.

- - Pinky

T-Shirt Sponsors

2009-07-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

Our team captain, Jay Mattlin and I would like to take a minute now to recognize our current list of t-shirt sponsors.

Thanks for all you do. You're helping so many cancer patients and their families!

Carnival Foods
Morris Veterinary Clinic
South Side Cycles
Alven Herstig, DDS
The Massage and Yoga Center
Tammi Jo's Cafe and Catering
Blank and Levy

4th of July Parade

2009-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Nana's Heroes was again in the 4th of July parade this year for Lancaster.

We wanted to advertise our Lawn Flamingoing fundraiser so we made a really cool float. We borrowed Jack's motorcycle trailer and put a piece of 2 inch foam board on it. We then put a piece of AstroTurf carpet down. It looked like a usual yard my friends and I like to land it.

Jessica bought candy to hand out which was awesome of her. She also brought the girls down to help hand out candy. We also had Carnell, Dede, Anna and Patricia. They all handed out candy while Jay handed out refrigerator magnets with our phone number on it.

I hope I get some phone calls about it. We haven't sat in a yard for a good time now.

Remember, it's only $30 and it goes to a great cause. Just call me (740) 687-6242 or send me an email at pinky.flamingo@nanasheroes.org

- - Pinky

P.S. Here we are going down the street to the fairgrounds for the parade. That was scary. Cars go really fast!

T-Shirt Sponsorship Letters

2009-06-19T19:18:00.001-07:00

I would like to apologize to the businesses who received a letter requesting sponsorships with the incorrect address on it.

The correct address is:
516 N. Maple St.
Lancaster, Ohio 43130

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Thank you for your consider and your support. We apologize for any inconvience this mix up may have caused.

-- Jay Mattlin, Team Captain; Nana's Heroes

T-Shirt Sponsorships

2009-05-11T19:30:00.001-07:00

T-shirt sponsorship letters are going out tomorrow. They are going out to Lancaster area businesses but I may have missed several. If you know of any interested businesses, please let me know.

You can also print off the letter and flyer about sponsoring us here: http://tinyurl.com/oc8srt

Another Installment of Nana Memories

2009-04-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, Nana, Kaitlin, mom and I have gone to Amish Country at least once a year. We went for a day usually and shopped for hours. I always found it to be boring and it really was. Crafts and antiques all day? Urgg. Boring.

When Nana died however, it was different. Although, I had gotten older and actually enjoyed Amish Country, it was different. We went with mom's friend Donna and her son, Corey. We looked around the flea market and the craft stores and I was some how sad. It didn't matter how much I enjoyed being there and looking at the cool crafty stuff. Nana wasn't there and just being there without her was almost too much.

We just went to Amish Country again this past weekend and things had changed. We actually had decided to go up for two days instead of cramming everything into one day. They had moved the flea market so it was awful. Really, we didn't find anything to buy which is sad for Amish Country. We still had fun though.

Recently, we had went to visit Nana at the cemetery and her tombstone is still missing. While we were in Amish Country, mom and I kept seeing these stones with cute little sayings and the like on them. I ended up buying one that says, "If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I'd walk up to heaven and bring you home again."

I thought this fit. I had seen this poem several times since Nana died but not on a stone like this. I also want to get some wind chimes to hang by her grave. Nana liked wind chimes. And when I hear the chimes I pick out ring, I'll know its her ringing those chimes.

The poem on the stone is part of a longer poem. Here is the full poem.

"If tears could build a stairway
And memories were a lane
We would walk right up to Heaven
And bring you back again

No farewell words were spoken
No time to say goodbye
You were gone before we knew it
And only God knows why

Our hearts still ache in sadness
And secret tears still flow
What it meant to lose you
No on will ever know

But know we know you want us
To mourn for you no more
To remember all the happy times
Life still has much in store

Since you’ll never be forgotten
We pledge to you today
A hallowed place within our hearts
Is where you’ll always stay"

I know that I had originally said that all the memories I shared of Nana would be happy but I felt I needed to share this one. And in a way, this is a happy memory for me. Amish Country was always fun. Amish Country meant a lot to Nana and it still means a lot to mom and I. I also feel that Nana's grave needs to have something there that says it's her since she is buried with her mom. I can't wait to see the tombstone Grandpa picked out. I'm sure it's beautiful.

Quote

2009-04-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our new favorite quote here at Nana's Heroes;

"Cancer is just a word, not a sentence."

This man goes to prove that. He is battling leukemia but he still bagged himself a huge turkey.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20090421/NEWS01/904210310/-1/

Update on Fundraising

2009-04-21T15:56:00.001-07:00

We have had a couple new people join the team. I'm very excited to have them on board.

The business owner letters are folded and stuffed into envelopes. I just need to print the t-shirt sponsorship flyers and get those in the envelopes. I wanted these letters out in March but with all the things that are going on, we haven't gotten around to it yet.

I hope to have them done and out in the mail by Monday.

Nothing much really going on right now. It's starting to warm up so I'll be pushing the lawn flamingoing a bit more now.

I still think this will be a great year. I've met a ton of people at my job who are really wanting to help with LTN2009 so I'm excited.

T-Shirt Sponsorships

2009-04-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

T-Shirt sponsorship letters should be going out tomorrow or at least the day after so that we can get those sponsorships done and have our t-shirts made as soon as possible. Having those shirts done sooner will allow us to show them off and allow people to who our wonderful sponsors are.

Nana Memories - Part 1

2009-04-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

I was on LFF the other day and was on the gardening forum. One forum member said they wished they had someone to come and pull their weeds for them since it's starting to get warm out again.

I added a comment that said something about if Nana were still around, she would come pick weeds for them. Nana, for some odd reason, loved to pick weeds. It was always funny to see her just talk to you and then bend down and pull a weed out and then continue the conversation as if nothing had happened.

This comment and post on LFF made me think of a funny story about Nana and her weed pulling habits...

One day, my sister, Kaitlin and I were out at Uncle Jeff's house and Nana and Grandpa were there and so was our cousin Trevor. Uncle Jeff, Trevor and Grandpa decided to go to the driving range. For some odd reason, Kaitlin and I decided to go. Nana didn't want to go; she didn't like to golf in her later years.

We all piled into Uncle Jeff's car and went to the driving range. When we arrived, there were so many people waiting for their turn to golf that we decided to turn back and go to the other driving range down the road.

Keep in mind, when we left Uncle Jeff's house, Nana was on the couch drinking water and watching her soaps.

We had to drive by Uncle Jeff's house again to get to the other driving range. When we drove by, there was Nana, barefoot, in the mulch in the front flower beds, pulling Uncle Jeff's weeds. We had probably only been gone for 15 minutes and she had already gotten a huge pile of weeds built up behind her. Uncle Jeff honked and yelled, "Get outta there, mom!" and kept driving. I think Uncle Jeff likes to pull weeds just as much as she did.

When we got back, you could see the piles of weeds all over the yard from where she had gone all around the house and pulled every single weed she could find.

I think pulling weeds was her thinking time. Her alone time. She somehow found relaxation in something that someone else would see as tedious.

Advocacy Action Alert

2009-04-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

Act Now - Urge Congress to Co-Sponsor Access to Cancer Clinical Trials Legislation
Clinical trials are a critical part of the process in finding superior treatments for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Many cancer patients face barriers that limit their ability to enroll in a clinical trial. One such barrier is the refusal of many insurance companies to cover what are known as “routine care costs” – such as doctor visits, blood draws and in-patient care – if a patient enrolls in a clinical trial. But, these costs would be covered for patients taking standard, often unsuccessful, cancer therapies.
Take action now! Urge your representatives to support legislation that would eliminate this barrier to patient enrollment in clinical trials.
LLS has been working in several states to pass legislation that would require insurance companies operating in those states to cover these routine care costs for patients enrolled in cancer clinical trials. However, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) have introduced legislation (S. 488 and H.R. 716, respectively) that would expand upon those state efforts. These bills would prevent health care plans – both state-based and ERISA-based – from denying patients enrolled in clinical trials services that would have been covered under their plan had they participated in what is considered standard therapy. These bills are the most comprehensive bills addressing this problem, to date, and would cover all Americans with health coverage.
As an advocate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, your help is needed. Please contact your elected officials and ask them to co-sponsor S. 488 or H.R. 716 now! You can even personalize your message so that your elected officials understand fully your connection to the disease and the important role that clinical trials plays in finding a cure for cancer. Please, act now!

Twitter

2009-04-06T20:09:00.001-07:00

We have setup Nana's Heroes and Pinky Flamingo Twitter accounts.

www.twitter.com/nanasheroes

AND

www.twitter.com/pinkyflamingonh

Hopefully, we'll keep them up to date with different stuff.

1st Flamingoing of the Year

2009-03-30T20:15:00.001-07:00

Nana's Heroes has officially kicked off their 2009 fundraising year.

We did our first lawn flamingoing job last week here in Lancaster and it turned out great!

The person requesting the flamingoing was putting them in someone's yard who was turning 40 or 50. Whichever age puts you over the hill.

The message on our board said, "Happy Birthday. Hiho Hiho, Over the Hill I Go."

I thought that was pretty clever.

I want to get our t-shirt sponsorship letters out next weeks so we can get that started. I hope the economy won't affect us too much this year but I know that it may be difficult to get as many donations this year.

I spoke with Chuck today and we did get a press release into the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette so that people will realize we're fundraising again this year.

I'm very excited to be starting so early this year!

I look forward to a great year and hope you'll join us!

Test

2009-03-24T13:28:00.001-07:00

I downloaded an application to update the blog from my phone. We'll see if it works or not.

-- Post From My iPhone

Welcome.. Again

2009-03-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Nana's Heroes website has been moved finally to a new server and it is finally working. The site is running on a server at the office now so we aren't actually paying for web hosting any more.

I will be updating the site very soon hopefully with this year's information.

Our online donation website has changed this year and is supposedly a better system.

Keep checking back!