Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night

At the Boston ACS meeting I collected $1600.00 from my chemist friends in two committees.  I CHALLENGE THE NORTH JERSEY SECTION TO MATCH THIS.
I have asked the Younger Chemist Committee to form a team and walk with me.  YCC's in other sections have done fundraisers for cancer and other causes and since the North Jersey Section YCC is award winning I thought they could do it.  Maybe next year!

Since you are all researchers I thought that you might want to know that the doctor who examined me when I went for my usually quarterly check up at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey is a clinical researcher who works for the "new Merck".  He does clinical trials at the the Shearing Plough location in Kenilworth and examins patients one day a week at the Cancer Institute.  We spent the first ten minutes of the exame period talking about Schering and Dr. Cecil Pickett who used to be head of research.  He said he would be there in December when I go again. I hope so, he was nice as is my oncologist Dr. Strair.  That doctor and I forgot to get his name gave me some information about research on CLL which is what I have.  I looked up the research papers.
Anyway I thought I would tell you this.

I will be walking the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk for the fifth year in a row. I have worked on this fund raiser every year since I was first diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It is truly an inspiring evening of walking with lighted balloons, red for supporters and white for survivors and gold for those who have lost the battle.
I not only walk for myself but for all those who have suffered from blood cancers some of them in silence. Remember our former webmaster died from a blood cancer.

I have become a patient advocate to spread the word about blood cancer. Few people know that SEPTEMBER IS BLOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH IN NEW JERSEY.

The LLS is trying to make September blood cancer awareness month nationwide. You can help by contacting your congress person. Here is the link:Act now to make September Blood Cancer Awareness Month

The Light the Night New Jersey Team will be on Good Morning America on Channel 7 ABC on Wednesday September 22. I don't know if it is an interview or just in the audience as I have been. The show airs from 7 AM to 9 AM when I am usually exercising so I will watch it on the Internet.

I am walking the Light the Night walk on Saturday October 2 at Princeton Forrestal Village. The ceremony starts at 5:00 PM and is usually over by 9:00 PM. We walk rain or shine in warm weather and cold weather and I have had all of that.  THERE IS STILL TIME TO WALK WITH ME.

If you would like to donate to my team my web page is :

http://pages.lightthenight.org/nj/Colonial10/jbrown_LTN45

I hope you donate the cost of one less cup of Starbucks coffee or Latte even more if your company will match.

You have until JANUARY 31 TO DONATE! Think about your tax deductions.

Remember I am walking for a cure. The researchers are close to getting cures for some blood cancers but they need money for this. Researchers are humans who have families and houses and need to eat so you will be stimulating the economy by donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!! Think of that!

Jeannette Brown

Welcome to our new volunteers and Farewell to one.

The North Jersey Section is continually recruiting volunteers to do the work of the section. We have recently recruited three new volunteers who have already started working. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank them for volunteering and show what they are doing.

How do I find volunteers? Well as a Chemistry Ambassador, I do it by giving my elevator speech everywhere I go. Tradition has it that men do a lot of business in the locker room of the golf club or gym. Well women have gotten into this action as well and we talk in the locker room of the YMCA. I found two women there who turned out to be chemists. One of them is semi retired from EXXON Mobil her name is Margaret. Margaret worked with me at Rutgers/Ag Day in April. The other woman has just been recruited by me in the Y her name is Lori she is a tutor now but did work as a chemist before her son was born.

 

Some volunteers seek me out, one of them is Penelope (Tawanna) who was a chemical technician and is now studying for a degree in chemistry. She contacted me two years ago about an Earth Day event in Irvington. She is now the Earth Day and National Chemistry Week Poster Contest organizer.

 

 

 

Another woman who contacted me by phone while I was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard is Dodda. She said she saw the information about recruiting volunteers on our website and wanted to volunteer! She has done an outstanding effort of volunteering. She introduced us to the 4H Club in Somerset County. We have participated in the Science day that they organized and the 4H fair last August. She and I were the pioneers on the street fairs; the first one was before we had our tent, which we now have. Both of us operated the booth with the help of Bill Suits who was the person to put up and take down the tent. Dodda is now only going to do volunteer work in the schools before she leaves to really retire. We want to thank her very much for all the work she did. She became my right hand in organizing street fairs and other events.

Figure 3 Dodda explaining something

The Younger Chemist Committee is becoming another source of volunteers. Chenghua and Michelle came to us and worked the table at the Ag/Rutgers Day event last April.

The other source of volunteers is the Teacher Affiliate Group Eve came to help at Science Day in the 4H Club and the 4H Fair.

Figure 4 Eve at AG Day

Members of the executive committee also volunteer but in this article, I want to highlight the work of the newest volunteers.

Why this article? Well it is to tell you that you can join this happy group of volunteers. Alternatively, I should say become a Chemistry Ambassador (www.acs.org/chemistryambassador) as the ACS is calling volunteers. Volunteer opportunities are listed on our website www.njacs.org and Volunteer Match. www.volunteermatch.org. the same opportunities will be listed there.

Hope you will join us at National Chemistry Week events at Liberty Science Center October 23 and at the USA Science and Engineering satellite event at the New Jersey Science and Engineering Festival in Clifton October 23 & 24.

Jeannette Brown

Publicity Chair

Black History Month 2. African American Women in Science

Congratulations to the NJACS webmaster Paul Tukey.  He correctly identified all three women in the quiz.
Anyone else want to try.  I will not reveal the answer until the end of the month.

Jeannette

Black History Month 1. African American Women in Science

I write three blogs off and on.  This month I will put the same information in all three blogs, because it is Black History Month and I want to convey some information to the public.
As you know I am writing a book about the history of African Amercan women chemists so I am going to give you a quiz. 
I will post some photos and I am going to ask you to identify them and what was their claim to fame.  The only clue is they were all chemists  but what did they do?

Ok. Its up to you to tell me who they are and what they did.  That's a hint they are all deceased.

Good Luck

Jeannette