Molly Mann runs LA marathon for Evan!!

Click here to read OC Register Article featuring Molly and Evan

Mac's Team Give Blood for Evan's Mom!!

Mac held my hand (mommy Aimee) for me-like I always do for him! Love you, Happy Birthday Evan's Mom. Aim April 12, 2008

DeYoung Family Inspired by Evan

Here are the pictures of Lindsey and Kylie(child) who each donated their hair to 'Locks of Love'. Also one of myself for having the pink donor dot; and for being helper with blood/marrow drives and donating to Friends of Scott prom dresses for kids with cancer. Gerry De Young

13-year-old Brooke Commits to "Live and Give"

After water polo one day last summer I had seen Evan's notification in my mail box and went straight to his site as usual. As I read over Gina's words, one sentence stuck out like a huge sore thumb: You can be as young as 13 to join DonateLife!! As soon as I saw those words, I raced to my parents, and asked if I could join. Both of them being donors, they were curious as to why I wanted to follow their example. I explained that if I am involved in a terrible accident that ends my life, there's no point in not sharing my organs. That I could save over 8 people, and that was well worth getting that little dot. That I could give someone a gift of life that could save their life, that not doing this would be a waste. So back to my computer I went, and typed in those boxes as fast as my fingers could, and then bam. I had that magical pink dot that gave me the opportunity to be a hero, and save someone's life. I can easily say that was the best use my time on a computer.

Brian Runs With Evan As His Inspiration

Here are a couple pictures from my race two weeks ago that show my Fight For Evan T-shirt. Though I didn't have a chance to train for the race as I had planned, there was never a question of finishing. Completing the course was such a small thing compared to the courage Evan showed battling his disease and the struggle you and your family faced then and now. I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with Evan and was ready to share his story with any and all who would listen. Brian April 11, 2008

Shelly Inspires Her Company To "Save Lives"

Gina-

I am so glad that you emailed me again. I will attach a copy of the letter that will appear on our company’s intranet sight on September 15th; this will explain why I did what I did. As far as how I did it, it was really rather simple. I contacted Memorial Blood Centers and asked them what they needed from me in order to put together a blood drive. Rachel came to my office and explained how it worked. I talked with several of our customers over the next few weeks to get their feedback and then decided on a date. I sent out fliers about 8 weeks prior to the event. Then I called our local radio station and they ran an ad for free because it was non-profit. I placed posters all over our building and made a whole bunch of reminder phone calls. Since the blood drive I have had several people show interest in donating again as soon as they can. I have been in contact with Rachel and am currently working on another drive, hopefully mid October. I have not been in contact with anyone from nmdp. I would be more then happy to join forces with Kelly and try and put a marrow drive together. Here is the letter I wrote for our pipeline.

Have you ever witnessed something so profound that you are not only moved to tears, but to action as well?

In November of 2007 I had a friend that was severely burned in an electrical fire. We were all able to stay on top of his condition thanks to a Caring Bridge website. Caring Bridge offers free personalized websites that support and connect loved ones during a critical illness, treatment and recovery. It was here that I also first witnessed the journey of the Cousineau family.

Evan Cousineau was diagnosed with ALD or Adrenoleukodystrophy. ALD is a deadly genetic disease that affects 1 in 18,000 people. It most severely affects boys and men. This disease ravages the brain, and the symptoms grow worse, including blindness & deafness, seizures, loss of muscle control and dementia. This relentless downward spiral leads to death or permanent disability usually with in 2-5 years of diagnosis.

Evan received a bone marrow transplant as well as two cord blood transplants in an effort to try and stop this horrible disease from progressing and possibly save his life. Just as you have to find a match for a kidney donation, the same is true of cord blood. (This is blood from an umbilical cord)

On November 2nd, 2007, one day before his 10th birthday, Evan lost his battle.

Through their pain, the Cousineau family has been changing lives one drive at a time. They have been campaigning to "Save lives in honor of Evan". The drives they do are for bone marrow, platelets, organ donation, cord blood and other blood products. If you have a chance please visit Evan's Caring Bridge website @ caringbridge.org. Select visit and type in evancousineau. You can join Evan's entourage and view the family's montage in an effort to save lives. I assure you, you will be moved as well.

This is what led me to the mission behind the blood drive. We teamed it with customer appreciation day due to a strong interest from our customers.

It was a beautiful day and a great event. We had 15 first time donors, with a total of 18 units of blood collected.

If you visit Evan's guestbook and sign, please make sure to let the family know that you are with Ferguson.

I read and re-read Evan’s cb my story and hope that I relayed it properly. I will contact Kelly through Dom’s website. I can’t imagine how incredibly busy you are, so thanks again for keeping in touch. I am still moved by your efforts every day Gina.

Shelly

Give Blood Play Hockey Tourney funds Marrow Donors!!

In October 2007, Mary Quayle, a senior at Mater Dei High School in Orange County CA, decided to "give HOPE" to patients by hosting the first annual "Give Blood Play Hockey" tournament where roller hockey teams could come together to have fun playing in a tourney, while spectators could give blood and raising funds for the local children's hopsital. At this first tourney, they passed the goal can for Evan and raised funds to help pay for Evan's medical expenses. The next year, Evan's mom got it in her head to host a Marrow Drive at the tourney and to ask the GBPH committee to "fund" the drive. Not only did we bring dozens of new members to the registry in October 2008, as well as dozens of pints of blood donations, but the GBPH tournament raised over $25,000 for CHOC and wrote a $5200 check to the Marrow Foundation c/o Evan's Entourage to fund new marrow registrants. All because of one young ladies desire to make a difference in her community. We challenge hockey rinks around the nation to host their own "Give Blood (and Marrow) Play Hockey" tournament and give "HOPE" to patients and families in need".
Click here to go to GBPH website and watch video of this year's event

Evan's Entourage provides fresh fruit weekly to the Twin Cities Ronald McDonald House

AnnWhiting took on the roll organizing our Minneapolis Ronald McDonald House Weekly Fresh Fruit Basket care of Evan's Entourage after I decided that we needed to give back to the Ronald after the care they gave us during Evan's Fight. I could think of nothing that we lacked at the Ronald except for fresh fruit options, so we, the people who care about Evan, have taken on the task of a weekly delivery of fresh fruit for those that are still in the fight. If you would like to join us and live in the Twin Cities area, please email Ann at annwhiting27@yahoo.com

Bridee donated blood because of Evan!!

Hi Gina. I finally got around to donating blood. (I had tried and waited for a while at your birthday celebration, but had to leave). Anyway, I stumbled upon a blood donation at the RSM library yesterday as I was taking the boys to do homework there. I thought, well they could get their homework done while I give blood, perfect! After the questions, etc. I was on the bed... the "rookie" botched my left arm! It hurt so bad that was was scared. I requested that "Annie" ) the woman called upon in an emergency when I was bleeding all over, to do my right arm and get it going. She did great. During this 1 hour process, the boys kept playing with the "emergency bell" at the table for blood donors to ring in an emergency. The staff was getting all mad at them for playing with it, in a nice way, but I kind of felt bad for my boys since it was taking so long! Afterwards, I got up and went over to the "snack" table with the boys. Of course, since I have been dieting, not eating much sugar and weigh 115 right now, I almost passed out! I needed to use the "bell", but was worried that they would get all bent out of shape and think it was my boys again.... I rang it anyway before I passed out and they wisked me over to the bed to lay down. I was a white as a ghost, they said and were worried about me being alone with the boys. I ended up calling Eric to meet me at Wood Ranch, by the library so I didn't have to go far, to make sure I was OK. 2 hours later, we were finally leaving the library, homework done and blood in the bag! My left arm was so sore, I didn't want to go home and handle the twins (2 years old and would have wanted to be held, loved on, etc.) before bed. I waited till last minute to go home just in time to put them to bed. To make a long story short, it was worth every minute and soreness that I went through to honor Evan!!!

love,
Bridee

Reddington Triplets honoring Evan!!

Caitlin not only "giving HOPE" by enlisting in the Army, but by recruiting her classmates to join the NMDP: Read how she did it!!

I first learned about Evan when a friend of mine joined the “Fight for Evan” facebook group, and I happened to click on it to see what the group was about. I followed the link on the group to the caringbridge site. I don’t why, but something drew me into his story and once I started reading the journal I couldn’t stop. I continued to follow Evan’s fight and came to feel very connected to Evan and his family. Like everyone else, I was heartbroken on Nov. 2, when I read the message that he had passed away. In the coming months, however, I saw Evan’s family turn their grief and devastation into a mission to save lives. For a long time, I had felt somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that I had been given such an intimate glimpse into a family’s life, while doing nothing with that gift. However, as a recent college graduate without the means to host a drive on my own, I didn’t know what I could do.
At USC I had gone through on a ROTC scholarship. After we get commissioned, the Army requires us to go through two military schools, one of which I began this past September. This first week I was there I noticed our Commander had put up a sign for a Blood Drive at the end of the course. When I saw that, I realized this was my chance to become part of the “Evan Entourage.” The Department of Defense has a program that works with the NMDP to register members of the military. They not only fully fund the drives, but also help track military members so that if they come up as a match they can be brought home from wherever they are in the world to be donors.
I went to my commander with my proposal and was told that so long as I took care of everything there I could host the drive. Originally I had been hoping they were already planning one and I could just give a talk beforehand about the importance of registering, so I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of setting it all up myself. Fortunately, as soon as I contacted Gina, she reassured me and was there every step of the way to help me with anything I needed. Much to my surprise, setting up the drive was easy! The DoD sent me everything I needed in terms of supplies and instructions and Gina provided me with all the information I needed to properly inform people about registering.
As an introverted person who doesn’t like speaking in front of crowds, the only part I was really nervous was giving my speech to the classmates about why they should register. I arranged for groups to come see me by platoon (which is around 40 people each), meaning I would give my plea 5 times! Before the first group, I was incredibly nervous. My biggest fear was that people wouldn’t want to register, and that was only added to by the fact that I overheard a number of comments as people came into the room saying that they weren’t going to do it! But as I shared Evan’s story, I could see that people were listening, and when I finished I could hardly believe it when nearly everyone came up to take an envelope to register – even those very same people who had said coming in that they weren’t going to! By the end of the day, I had two full boxes of new registration envelops. To realize that 134 people decided to become potential donors that day was extremely humbling.
Being able to host a drive was such a blessing to me. I can’t wait to do another one and I’m so thankful to Gina for all her help and for letting me be part of the “Entourage.” I encourage anyone who has thought about getting involved to just take that first jump and do it. You can do it!!

Melodie is going through workup to donate her KIDNEY!!

I have been following Evan's page since the fall when I watched your story on ABC news. I wanted to tell you that because of Evan's story and your commitment to helping save more lives with BAHBAD, I am waiting for paperwork to see if I am a match for a kidney transplant for a 13 year old boy named Patrick Sibert. I read Patrick's story through a Care Pages site I follow. Patrick is in Minnesota and has renal failure and is in dire need of a kidney. I know you already know this, but what you are doing is great work.

Why did I decide to do this? Well, I follow so many Caring Bridge and Care Pages and I see how parents like yourself and their children are fighting and suffering. Since I started following a lot of these pages a couple of years ago I have seen so many of these brave kids, warriors, die. I have two sons, both healthy and active. For that I am grateful. I read your page and these other pages and I wonder if I would be strong enough to handle what they are going through. As a friend at church told me "When you are put in situation, God will give you the strength". I found out about Patrick through a Care Page I follow. When I read it my first thought was "you do it". Then I thought "wow, that's huge I can't do that". Then I read further and the message said A or O blood would be most compatible with Patrick. Immediately I thought "I have B+ blood. Whew, dodged a bullet". But I just couldn't leave well enough alone. I told myself to look at my blood donor card and if my blood matched his I would call the number. Well I pull out my donor card fully expecting to see B+. Well, I have A+ blood. I immediately prayed, first thanking God for the sign, then asking him for courage to follow through with making the call. I did it and got a call back last Friday. As I told you earlier I am waiting for more paperwork and the vials to have my blood drawn.

This is also a "pay it forward" situation for me. My husband was diagnosed bi-polar in April 2008 and has been in and out of work since August. Thankfully he currently has a job and is doing well with his meds, but we have been struggling financially. Members of our church family have stepped up and taken care of us financially and when I just need someone to cry to. I am so grateful for their help that I want to help someone else in turn. If I can't help Patrick, I'll try to help someone else.

Jill Dupree inspired by Evan to cut her hair for Locks of Love

I met Evan at Cali Kari's house right after his diagnosis and he was so damn cute. In learning his story and how even small things can help (not just Evan but all kids who are ill), I realized that hair was "something that I can do" with little effort from me. It's a gimmie, no excuse not to do it.
I've joked with Kari about waiting for the call from the bone marrow registry, logically knowing that it will probably never come, but sometimes I can't get over thinking that it can truly come at any moment. It's really an awesome thought knowing you're in the pool to be the one to save someone. You are my motivation and so is your son.
Your friend who's praying and pulling for your family,
Jill
P.S. Thanks for the tip on John Russo Dexter, I have an appointment to donate blood for him on for Feb 18th.