Hey everyone!
So the year is about to come to a close, only one month left for 2009! I wanted to write and update everyone on Mary Payton's status, a new fundraising method that we all can do without spending a cent and where we are for total mileage and fundraising! First, the new dosage of her medication has been working fairly well, dropping the frequency of her extended seizures (20-60 sec in length) to about 1-2 a day. She still is having a number of myoclinic and lip smacking seizures, but progress is still progress. If you check out the website (www.marypaytonsmiracle.com) you will also see that the research group at Cornell University has agreed to initiate the gene therapy treatment with only a 20% downpayment, allowing the cost to be paid over a period of years. However, with about a $2.5 million dollar cost to treat five children with Batten's Disease, significant fundraising is still required. As always, if you would like to donate, even $5 is a huge help.
I of course realize with the current state of the economy, giving is more difficult than it has been in the past. However, there is a way for you to help out financially without spending a dime! There is a search engine on the internet called GoodSearch that is powered by Yahoo. As with all search engines, websites pay the search engine for traffic directed to their websites, however, unlike all other sites, at Good Search 50% of all money raised is donated to charity! Furthermore, you can designate which charity you want the money made from your web searching to go to! It would be wonderful if you would all be willing to use this website and designate Mary Payton's Miracle as your charity and help the Vigil family get the gene treatment for Mary Payton and four other children stricken with Batten's Disease, strictly by doing something we do every time we are online! Furthermore, Goodsearch also includes GoodShop, where between 2-6% of all purchases made online through GoodShop will be donated to the charity you chose! Further, as an added bonus, it pops up with any available online coupons to that store when you do the search!!! So if you do any of your Christmas or Holiday shopping online, simply by searching and purchasing through GoodShop for the retailer you are interested in, you can save a couple bucks while you help out at the same TIME! Finally, GoodSearch does have a downloadable seach menu bar for your web browser if you prefer to have it up there!
As for our efforts, we are still doing quite well! Overall, together we have raised $3443 to date and I have gotten in 5061 charity miles! This has included a marathon, a 10 miler, Muddy Buddy, an Olympic Tri (in which I won my age group for the first time ever) and on Thanksgiving a Turkey Trot 5K in Charlottesville VA. To all of the donors and well wishers, thank you again for all the help and support. For those of you still wishing to give or who now find themselves in a better position to do so, it is never too late and every dollar raised is used 100% towards helping Mary Payton and others battling Batten's disease. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and hope this year has been as productive and enjoyable as it has been for Betsy, Cole and I!
Josh Caldwell
So the year is about to come to a close, only one month left for 2009! I wanted to write and update everyone on Mary Payton's status, a new fundraising method that we all can do without spending a cent and where we are for total mileage and fundraising! First, the new dosage of her medication has been working fairly well, dropping the frequency of her extended seizures (20-60 sec in length) to about 1-2 a day. She still is having a number of myoclinic and lip smacking seizures, but progress is still progress. If you check out the website (www.marypaytonsmiracle.com) you will also see that the research group at Cornell University has agreed to initiate the gene therapy treatment with only a 20% downpayment, allowing the cost to be paid over a period of years. However, with about a $2.5 million dollar cost to treat five children with Batten's Disease, significant fundraising is still required. As always, if you would like to donate, even $5 is a huge help.
I of course realize with the current state of the economy, giving is more difficult than it has been in the past. However, there is a way for you to help out financially without spending a dime! There is a search engine on the internet called GoodSearch that is powered by Yahoo. As with all search engines, websites pay the search engine for traffic directed to their websites, however, unlike all other sites, at Good Search 50% of all money raised is donated to charity! Furthermore, you can designate which charity you want the money made from your web searching to go to! It would be wonderful if you would all be willing to use this website and designate Mary Payton's Miracle as your charity and help the Vigil family get the gene treatment for Mary Payton and four other children stricken with Batten's Disease, strictly by doing something we do every time we are online! Furthermore, Goodsearch also includes GoodShop, where between 2-6% of all purchases made online through GoodShop will be donated to the charity you chose! Further, as an added bonus, it pops up with any available online coupons to that store when you do the search!!! So if you do any of your Christmas or Holiday shopping online, simply by searching and purchasing through GoodShop for the retailer you are interested in, you can save a couple bucks while you help out at the same TIME! Finally, GoodSearch does have a downloadable seach menu bar for your web browser if you prefer to have it up there!
As for our efforts, we are still doing quite well! Overall, together we have raised $3443 to date and I have gotten in 5061 charity miles! This has included a marathon, a 10 miler, Muddy Buddy, an Olympic Tri (in which I won my age group for the first time ever) and on Thanksgiving a Turkey Trot 5K in Charlottesville VA. To all of the donors and well wishers, thank you again for all the help and support. For those of you still wishing to give or who now find themselves in a better position to do so, it is never too late and every dollar raised is used 100% towards helping Mary Payton and others battling Batten's disease. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and hope this year has been as productive and enjoyable as it has been for Betsy, Cole and I!
Josh Caldwell
