Name Dropping Famous Friends to Fight Cancer

A Brief History (No Quiz Later)

For anyone just finding me, my brother is The Fat Cyclist, or “Fatty” as his friends mockingly but oh-so-lovingly call him.  My brother’s wife, Susan, has stage 4 breast cancer and is fighting an amazing and exhausting fight.  They have four kids and a legion of readers and friends backing them in this battle.  Fatty, his family and his readers have been on the ropes with cancer for years now, and are kicking it up a notch (BAM!) by dominating the Livestrong Challenge.

 

The goal is to have the largest team (Team Fatty: Fighting for Susan) in each of the four cities of the Livestrong Challenge, and to raise breathtaking amounts of money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which has been pivotal in keeping Fatty, his family, and countless others informed, prepared, and comforted in their struggles with cancer.  As of this writing, Team Fatty has collectively raised $252,482.  Yeh, that’s awesome.

So What’s it to Me? (By “me” I mean “you”)

I am raising money for the San Jose leg of the Livestrong Challenge.  Never mind that I live in Brooklyn, NY.  This is just how I do. With a few blog posts and emails, I have been able to raise $2,660.  I have truly been overwhelmed with the generosity of my friends and my strangers, but am preparing myself to be even more overwhelmed.  I will be hosting online raffles every week until Tuesday, June 30^th, at which time the winners for each raffle will be drawn at a fundraising event held at Layla Jones Pizza in my own Brooklyn neighborhood.  You do not need to be present to win.  But I advise that you be there if you can because they have wickedly delicious pizza.

How Do I Win…er….uh…Enter? 

Online entries for the raffle can be made directly to my Livestrong Challenge Page.  For every donation of $5.00, a raffle ticket will be generated for you.  So if you donate $20.00, you will get…lesee here…where’s my calculator….

 

4 tickets!  And so on.  Obviously the more you donate, the higher your chances of winning and the Pistols + Popcorn ethics committee has determined that it’s totally ok to be motivated by that.

Again – to enter, donate HERE.

 

So….Tell ‘Em What They’ll Win, Jodi…

The first online raffle item is donated from my pal Michelle Williams.  (Yeh, that’s right….I’m name dropping now.  Also: using the bold button.  I’m here, I’m boldly name dropping, get used to it.)  Michelle recently finished a film called “Shutter Island”, directed by Martin Scorsese.  The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, and Max Von Sydow.  (What a great group of kids – I hope they make it some day!)

Michelle has arranged for me to give away two passes to the Red Carpet Premier of “Shutter Island”, to take place in New York, in September/October of 2009.  (Exact dates will be given before the drawing.)  While she won’t actually be your date so don’t get any ideas, she will be more than happy to hang out for a bit and assist you and your (+1) in finding your seats in the theater.  She’s helpful like that.  (Note: this prize does not include transportation or lodging so if you don’t live in NYC why not schedule a little vacay around this, hmmm?)

 

This raffle begins today, June 3, 2009 and will be open for one week, ending on June 10, 2009.  Tickets generated before midnight Brooklyn time (yeh yeh I know it isn’t a time zone, but you get the idea) will be entered in the drawing to take place on June 30, 2009.  The raffle will be re-opened to anyone who attends the event at Layla Jones Pizza in person that night. The winners will be announced at Layla Jones, and posted on Pistols + Popcorn the following day.

Click here to make your donation, and generate your virtual raffle ticket.

But Wait There’s More???

New raffles will be announced every week through June so start saving your pennies, citizens.  Remember it’s all going to fight cancer.  Every penny.  Prizes will be donated by:

• An extremely funny newscast that I can’t name yet because it’s not 100%
• Appaman
• Area
• Brooklyn Bicycle
• Catbird
• Exit 9
• Lola Newsom at Hello Beautiful
• Lori Nelson
• Painted Pot
• Sunray Mobility Services

And I’m not even done hitting people up yet.  For reals.  

Closing it out with some words posted by my brother on his site, this past Tuesday:

 

“What helps — a little — is to know that I, along with you, am at least doing something in this fight. It’s not enough to help Susan, and I hate myself for not having done more sooner.

But it is something, and you’re all helping me feel like I’m doing something important. And that helps me. Thank you for that.”

 

Seriously.  Thank you.