Help FORCE win $250,000!

Many of you know that I am a big fan of FORCE, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the organization dedicated to helping women and families like me who are at high risk for breast or ovarian cancer. FORCE’s mission statement is:

“To provide unbiased information and resources regarding hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. To provide support to families and individuals affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. To raise awareness of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. To advocate for the community affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. To promote research specific to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. To reduce disparities among under-served populations by promoting access to information, resources and clinical trials specific to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. “

FORCE is an amazing organization. For those of you who have read Positive Results, you know that the women I met through FORCE helped me realize that preventive surgery, while drastic, was an entirely reasonable way to deal with being at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

Three years ago I joined Linee Zajic as an additional outreach coordinator in Los Angeles. Linee and her sister had launched the local Los Angeles group a few years earlier and they met every few months at a local restaurant. I had attended a few of these meetings but had thought that they would be more intimate if they occurred in a home, so I called Linee and offered to host the next meeting at my house. We had fifteen women in my living room for that first meeting three years ago. Our meetings have grown and now we routinely have between 35 and 50 people, both men and women, attend. The strength, power and camaraderie of this group is an amazing thing to behold, although quite frankly we are outgrowing the space available in my home.

One of the amazing things about FORCE is that it is able to do so much with so little money. FORCE is an all volunteer organization with only a couple of paid part-time staff. Yet it puts on a first class conference (happening this week in fact!) each year and reaches millions of people through its website, informational brochures provided to physicians, and direct one-on-one contact, and support for important research for our community.

I always feel good about my donations to FORCE. I know that not a dime of what I send them wasted.

And now, the important part:

We have an opportunity to help FORCE raise substantial funds to allow it to move forward with its critical mission AND IT WILL NOT COST YOU A DIME!

Here is the deal:

Chase bank has a community giving program where they will donate a total of $5 million to 200 charities. The process of deciding which charities are the most worthy will be totally democratic. And the voting takes place from now through July 12, 2010 on FACEBOOK.

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Log in to your FaceBook account (or create one if you have not yet joined!)
2. Go to the Chase Community Giving page and search for Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered. Or even better, get there quickly by clicking here.
3. Click on the green VOTE NOW tab at the top of the page.
4. Let all of your friends know you have voted by sharing on your page and sending them messages encouraging them to vote too.

Remember this is a word of mouth campaign, the reward for FORCE is big and to cost to you is mere moments of your time.

Thank you! And if you are coming to the conference please look for us!

Joi