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A Message from the

Executive Director

                 “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of 2 characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”

(John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th US president, 1917-63)    

Dear Friends,
 

The Crisis
The quotation above epitomizes the experience of CARES Foundation over the last few months. The morning of February 17, 2006 changed so much for us. Watching our office building burn down, and with it all of our possessions, five years of work product, our server and our precious database, was devastating. Our on-site server back-up was destroyed as well, so we irretrievably lost all data. After calling our insurance agent, we realized we were dreadfully underinsured. An overwhelming anxiety and fear gripped the staff. We were heartbroken and thought perhaps this was the end of CARES.

Within hours of the fire, the phone calls from our friends began, and you opened up your checkbooks, gave of your time and rescued CARES. Our community—and indeed we are a community in the truest sense—came to our rescue and provided the moral, volunteer and financial support we so needed. You cannot imagine how much your calls, emails and letters meant to us all. Many made us cry—tears of joy to know that you cared about us and the work we did for the CAH community. You kept us going during a time when it was often tempting to give up. The financial support was and is essential, as we could not have made it without the extra help. I, we, cannot thank you enough for keeping us going during that difficult time. Please know how much you all mean to us and how much we appreciate your support. This is the meaning of community—being there for each other. You were there for us, so we can be there for you. May God Bless you all.

New Opportunities
Thanks to your generosity and the generosity of the local community, our foundation and corporate donors, we have been able to move into new offices in Union, New Jersey and buy new (used) furniture, computers and office equipment. The local community came out in force. Rabbi Daniel Cohen from Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel dropped off two new computers and two new printers just days after the fire, paid out of his own pocket. The youth group from the synagogue also held a fundraiser for us. The local Rotary Club, Junior League, local school groups and Whole Foods Market all raised funds for CARES. The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, the Karma Foundation, RolexUSA, Inc. and PerkinElmer, Inc. all made generous donations to help get CARES back on its feet. With these generous gifts, we have been able to reestablish our operations and are stronger than ever!

We also thank the volunteers who helped with countless hours of data entry and, most of all, our dedicated, hardworking and tireless staff for never giving up and working so hard to rebuild CARES under these extremely difficult circumstances. We are settled into our new offices, just a couple of miles from our old office and are so happy to be in our new home! Please come for a visit anytime!

Celebrating Five Years of Saving Our Babies
On June 17, 2006, we held our first fundraiser in New Jersey. It was a wonderful evening. About 200 people turned out to honor former Governor Donald DiFrancesco for signing an  executive order five years ago that has led to saving the lives of almost 300 New Jersey babies, including many with CAH. Special thanks are due to our chairs, Adam Leight and James Raphalian and to our hard working committee members, as well as our generous corporate sponsors, including: Pfizer, Inc., Keyspan Energy, and Commerce Bank. We also thank all of those who gave generously to the event, attended and to those who donated to the auction. We raised over $117,000 for CARES and for CAH research!

Casino For CARES

Many thanks to our chair of this lovely event, Monica Heinze, who almost singlehandedly organized this event. About 80 people joined her on July 29th in Denver, Colorado for a fun- filled evening of casino games to raise over $14,000 for CARES! Many thanks to Monica and to all who attended and supported the event!

New Members of the Board of Trustees, Medical and Scientific Advisory Board, and New Staff
We are pleased to welcome Gregory Kraff and Monica Heinze to our Board of Trustees. Both Monica and Greg have children affected by CAH and are longtime, active members of CARES. We are delighted to have them join our board. We are also honored to have two new members of our Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Henry Anhalt of St. Barnabas Medical Center and Dr. Maria Vogiatzi of Weill- Cornell New York Presbyterian Hospital. You can read more about them at New Medical Advisors. We also welcome new staff members, Jennifer Mann Rosenblatt, our Director of Development and Mazal Wolfskehl our bookkeeper. They make wonderful additions to our CARES team!

In Other News
We mourn the loss of our dear friend and wonderful supporter David Abell. Our hearts and minds are with his family and friends. Please click here to learn more about David and his wonderful contributions to humanity.

We thank Peregrine Charities for their generous grant that will allow us to continue funding a natural history protocol at NIH (details).
 

We thank Dan Hackett and his father Steve Hackett for approaching Bibbero Systems on our behalf. Bibbero selected CARES for its employee giving/ matching gift program. To learn more, please see our Fundraising Update.
 

Finally, we thank the Cornell Institute for Pediatric Urology for generously sponsoring this edition of the newsletter. Our newsletter costs several thousand dollars to print and distribute and remains completely free of charge for all CARES members. Thank You!

Gratitude
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” (Albert Schweitzer, M.D., German theologian, philosopher, and physician, 1875-1965)

With Warmest Regards,

Kelly

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