Kempf Tabbed Finalist for 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award

[Jim Hyla]

Here's the CU link.

And the donation page.

Please donate, they need help to make their goal of $30,000.

[billhoward]

Ten cents and up, suggested donation, per blocked shot. Sounds good.

Why can't we pick the stat we want to support? I'm on board for a dollar for every 10-minute misconduct levied against the opponent, ten dollars for every misconduct dealt against Harvard at Lynah. I'd also give a dollar for every time at Lynah where Jack O'Leary checks to the ice every player outweighing him by 25+ pounds. I'd also pay for Cornell shorthanded goals.

But seriously: Hank Kempf has done amazing things for the Ithaca community, the Dominican Republic, and others.

[George64]

Here's the CU link.

And the donation page.

Please donate, they need help to make their goal of $30,000.

I second that.  Here's part of an email I sent to Mike last month -

This morning I made a contribution to Big Red Blocks for Healing in honor of my seven year-old granddaughter, Kennedy, who has type-1 diabetes.  She's a real trooper, but it's not easy for her.  Please thank our team for helping her and other kids cope with this disease.  Special thanks to Hank Kemph, fellow Rochesterian Ryan Walsh and Jack O'Brien for their leadership.
.

[billhoward]

Nice post. TY. There is nothing sadder than a child suffering. They deserve our help and prayers. Some of the help, to benefi future kids, is doing everything possible to make future generations of parents be better parents. And for both parents to be there. DP Moynihan 70 years ago noted the problems when there's only one parent.

My sister spent much of her life as a pediatric oncology nurse. Geez, I don't think I could last a week in that job.

[Snowball]

Here's the CU link.

And the donation page.

Please donate, they need help to make their goal of $30,000.

Wonderful cause - signed up after I got the email from Schafer.  Super for Kemp, Walsh and O'Leary to dedicate time to this.

On a side note George64: people with Type 1 Diabetes, have had the benefit of an array of terrific new tools over the last few years: continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, etc. The future only looks brighter. XO to your granddaughter.

[George64]

On a side note George64: people with Type 1 Diabetes, have had the benefit of an array of terrific new tools over the last few years: continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, etc. The future only looks brighter. XO to your granddaughter.

Thanks, Snowball.  Kennedy now has all those tools, but not before I learned how to do finger sticks and insulin injections. Plus she has an iPhone that allows her parents and us to monitor her from afar.  And progress continues, including at Weill Cornell.
.

[abmarks]

Nice post. TY. There is nothing sadder than a child suffering. They deserve our help and prayers. Some of the help, to benefi future kids, is doing everything possible to make future generations of parents be better parents. And for both parents to be there. DP Moynihan 70 years ago noted the problems when there's only one parent.

My sister spent much of her life as a pediatric oncology nurse. Geez, I don't think I could last a week in that job.

The part that hit home to me was the part of the program that provides "free one-week overnight summer camp for kids ages 6 to 18 who have a parent with a cancer diagnosis. "

My younger brother passed away at the age of 54 back in September, ~21 months after being diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer.  He was divorced with
a 14 year old daughter. The hardest part of the whole thing was watching her try and cope with the situation.  (Turns out there's actually a huge upside for the kids if you get divorced and develop a terminal illness; with 50/50 custody and living only 10 minutes apart, the kids have an easy way to escape from things for a while if they want, you know? )

So I love that they give those kids the chance to get away from their problems for a bit.  In my niece's case, she was so afraid that my brother might die in front of her that she stopped staying overnight at his place a couple months before he died, and although they still texted a bit until the end, the last time she saw him in person was about three weeks before his death and only for an hour or so.  It was just too overwhelming for her.  I tried many  times to imagine what I would have felt like as a 13 and 14yo kid if my parent was dying from cancer - and I truly have no idea. Not really comprehendable.  


I'm 57, and while it's not easy, ever, I at least understood and was glad for those in the family that passed from cancer or other terminal conditions.

-My mom passed away from peritoneal Cancer in 2022, not even three weeks after diagnosis.  But she was 84, had been ill in one way or another for a very long time, and clearly went on her own terms.  I was fortunate enough to have been the one sitting with her for her last two hours and only after the fact realized that when I'd kissed her on the forehead and said "Love you, mom, it'll be gone soon" (referring to the morphine i was about to give her) I'd given her the permission to go.  

-when my brother passed in September, I'd been taking care of him for the last 21 months (virtually attending all his appointments etc from VErmont while he was in DC, and then went down to take care of him for what turned out to be his final two weeks. While it's of course far too soon, he, too, was ready to go and after having had a really rough stretch of treatments, had soundly decided that enough was enough about a month prior, swapped to palliative and hospice care, and, especially after watching the truly difficult struggle he had in his last week, dying was the best thing that could have happened for him at that point.

-and to top it off, I'd moved in with my elderly parents in 2019, for a bunch of reasons but also to help take care of them.  Mom went in 2022 as I said.  Dad, though, was still alive when my brother died and had been a miserable SOB for a number of years between the cognitive decline, all sorts of chronic illness and disease and the isolation of old age and being in rural Vermont too.  He was actually jealous of my brother for a long time, because my brother got to die, while pop hadn't managed to be quite the ill.    In the end though, I think he had hung on waiting for my brother to go, because dad seemed to decline quickly after my brother passed away, and dad died just six weeks after my brother, in late October.  And I can honestly say I'm happy for him as well- he had suffered for years- mainly from the awareness that he couldn't take care of the house anymore, or fix things, figure out the TV remote etc, when he'd been a very successful IBM engineer for 25+ years.

I guess I'm trying to say that at least at my age, it's not fun, but I can understand, if not even celebrate the end of someone's time.   But those teenagers? I can't imagine.

Apologies for the tangent.  It's still pretty fresh stuff, and hits me out of the blue here and there unexpectedly.  

F cancer.

[Snowball]

Yes F cancer.

I found your post very moving, and I am struck by how wonderfully supportive you have been of your family.

Those camps for kids are wonderful. I am also a  fan of grief counseling - it really helped my friend and her children who lost their husband/father on 9/11.

My best to you, your niece and the rest of your family.

[Snowball]

Apologies - didn't mean to introduce another sad thing into this chain, that being 9/11.

N.B. My widowed friend remarried and her children are now  thriving adults.