Elizabeth Psar | Julia Barbara Foundation | Oct. 25th

Today we had Wonderful a heartfelt presentation by Elizabeth Psar of “The JULIA BARBARA Foundation!” Elizabeth is the mother of beautiful Julia Barbara who at age 2 years 11 months left this world due to DIPG. Her life meant the world to her mom, Elizabeth, her father and her older brother. The Foundation named in Julia’s honor raises awareness and research funding to fight this childhood disease (brain stem tumors) which currently has no cure. Through The Julia Barbara Foundation’s efforts we hope to change DIPG’s prognosis.

I’m so thankful my children are grown, and I can leave the worry of most of the things that can remove them from this world.  Elizabeth Krammer Psar told us about her daughter Julia Barbara who almost lived to be three years old.  She expired from an illness from which there is no cure and since only about 400 children die from this each year there aren’t enough to warrant lots of study.  It starts as a brain stem tumor and unless you’re really on your toes the symptoms will not only get by you but your doctor also. In the end it won’t make a difference but hopefully with people like Elizabeth things will improve.  Not the most fun speaker we’ve had recently but one that really made you think. Brain tumors are now the leading cause of cancer related deaths in children ages 1–19.

I attended (along with several other Sertomans) the dinner with Tamika Catchings. Am I the only person that didn’t know she received 4 gold medals? And she was drafted by the Indiana Fever where she played from 2001 to2016. She gave a most inspiring speech and will be coaching a basketball clinic they auctioned off and Dr. Joe Johnson and Holly Warwick each donated $4,000 to fund.  What are our chances of getting them to attend Oktoberfest next year?

Next Week:  We will have Nlola Radford, Ph.D. who is the Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Research.

Housekeeping:  Jason Grahl read the prayer, Allie Harmon led the pledge and with 10 out of 10, Rusty Farrell won the grid pick and then just to make the rest of us look bad, he donated the money back to the club.