Thursday, March 7, 2019
Head-shaving events have been one of the many ways the foundation raises funds and awareness for childhood cancer treatment since 1999.
Recent data tells us that, on average, a child is diagnosed with cancer every two minutes — yet pediatric cancer research remains largely underfunded. While it's true that more adults are diagnosed with cancer than children, it's children that lose an average of 56 years more of their lives than adults, considering 6-years-old is the average age of diagnosis.
Even children who are treated successfully run the risk of suffering side effects later in life. According to the foundation's website, 95% of survivors will suffer from chronic health issues due to surgery, radiation and chemotherapy administered at the same time their young brains and bodies were developing throughout treatment.
Why shave your head? Chris Dow, the regional event director for this year's Rock the Bald, says that it raises awareness and offers solidarity.
"People will ask you, 'Hey, why are you bald?' and it provides a conversation starter for those who might not know about pediatric cancer," he said. "It also shows the kids who are going through chemo that they have friends and family on their side."
In addition to head shaving, participants can donate ponytails 8 inches or longer. This year's event will also feature food trucks, raffles, face painting, chair massages and eegees to provide fun and fundraising opportunities all ages will enjoy.
Mountain View High School is located at 3901 W. Linda Vista Blvd. Tucson, AZ 85742. The event runs from 5-9 p.m. Contact Chris Dow at [email protected] or call 520-256-9595 for more information.
Tags: fundraiser , family , fun , event , cancer , community , St , Baldrick's , donate , childrens , kids , health , wellness , Image
Thursday, February 28, 2019
The Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile rolls on into Casino Del Sol's AVA Amphitheater on Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3, from noon to 4 p.m.
Tucsonans will have the chance to fill out an application, have their name drawn randomly to play a simulated version of the game onstage, win prizes and be considered for the televised version of the show.
Wheel of Fortune staff will hand out applications one hour before each show begins, so make sure to be there at 12 p.m. 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. All ages are welcome at the event, however game show contestants must be at least 18 years old.
Gates open at 10 a.m. and applications will be handed out at the West Gate of the amphitheater.
“Every year, Wheel of Fortune receives over 1 million inquiries from viewers who want to be contestants,” wrote Executive Producer Harry Friedman in a release. “The Wheelmobile was created to give people all over the country an opportunity to realize that dream.”
Most Wheel of Fortune contestants were chosen for the show after meeting the Wheelmobile in their hometowns. Try your had at fortune at the Casino this weekend.
Tags: Wheelmobile , Wheel of Fortune , Casino Del Sol , AVA Amphitheater , game show , contestant , winner , Image
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
At 40, Hunter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Hunter admits she was a “closet MS-er” at first. But when she began having trouble walking in 2003, she was forthright about her condition. She gave up driving for three years starting in 2007, due to lack of reliable mobility in her right leg. By 2010, Hunter was fed-up with being grounded, so she opted to get hand-controls on her vehicle.
“Because that’s a big thing—not losing your independence,” Hunter said.
Although Hunter isn’t currently taking any disease-modifying therapy medications—which are designed to delay the condition from progressing and mitigate inflammation—she is treating some of her symptoms with medicine, which include muscle cramps and stiffness.
She said there are two pivotal d-words that impact people with MS: denial and depression.
She knows that isolation can negatively impact her health, so besides staying connected with other people affect by the disease, Hunter will be participating in the annual MS Walk Tucson event, which is hosted by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Hunter met Debbie Sheehan at the annual fundraiser about 20 years ago. Sheehan was diagnosed while on active duty with the Air National Guard during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
In 2010, they formed a walking team for Tucson’s local fundraising event and dubbed the group Carol and Debbie’s Superstars. Last year they were named the No. 1 team at the local event, raising $8,000. Overall, the Tucson walk collected $76,000 and have set this year’s goal at $90,000.
Throughout the U.S., the walk brought in $38 million in 2018 and the non-profit’s cumulative fundraising effort surpassed $1 billion in 2017.
About 83 percent of the funds raised during the national walk goes toward research, various programs and education according to National Multiple Sclerosis Society statistics.
Treatments expanding
MS is an autoimmune disease that triggers a person’s immune system to attack the central nervous system. The attacks, often referred to as relapses, either impede or stop messages within the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves from traveling to the body.
There is no known cause for the disease and there is no cure. What the medical community knows is many people who live with MS typically share some common risk factors.
Tags: walk for the cure , MS , treatment , research , fundraising , MS Walk Tucson , Image
When Gov. Doug Ducey released his multimillion dollar budget proposal last week, he included $56 million in subsidies for day care, saying it would make such care more affordable for low-income families and expand its reach to about 29,000 children.
“We’re going to move from the back of the pack to right in the middle, and then we’re also going to let about 5,000 other children have these subsidies that don’t have them today,” said Christina Corieri, the governor’s senior policy adviser.
The state pays subsidies to day care centers to cover part of a child’s tuition, allowing qualifying families to choose a government-funded center. But the subsidies have stagnated even as day care costs have risen. The budget injection is meant to narrow the gap.
Families sometimes are forced to walk away from a day care center when the subsidy program doesn’t provide enough financial help, a day care administrator said.
“It’s hard. As soon as they walk in, we know we are going to have to have the talk,” said Kelly McCready, administrator of Kreative Kampus in central Phoenix.
Without the option of licensed day care providers, she said, some parents rely on friends, family members or acquaintances – who aren’t trained – to watch their children, or the parents are forced to reduce working hours to care for their child.
“We’re taking away the opportunity for them to choose – to choose what’s best for their family,” McCready said.
The state last adjusted funding in 2000, giving care centers an average of $350 per child. But as employee salaries and other costs of running a day care facility escalated, so did families’ share of the bill.
In 2014, Arizona families paid an average day care cost of $9,437 a year, according to an Economic Policy Institute report that says high-quality child care is financially out of reach for most families.
McCready said day care owners and managers sometimes will try to make ends meet without asking families to pay the overage, but that goodwill strains those businesses’ resources.
“Working and living in the early-childhood industry, there’s so much passion and willingness to give that extra 10 percent to make up for not quite enough,” McCready said.
Ducey’s plan for the $56 million is to put half of the money toward lowering fees families have to pay by an average of $100 and the other half toward adding 5,100 children to the program. That would bring the number of eligible children to 29,000, according to Corieri, Ducey’s adviser.
“We are not supplementing parents in any way,” McCready said. We are just supporting them, so having relationships with the families, with the children, we can then support here through the day what those families need.”
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
Tags: childcare , day care , funding , subsidies , low income families , students , children , Gov. Doug Ducey , legislation , Image
Monday, February 25, 2019
While there are no more blue light specials happening, a good majority of the inventory is already sold, and it's basically abandoned already, this is your last chance to take a stroll through the aisles and hang out at the (now closed) Little Caesar's within.
And if you're feeling extra nostalgic, you can even purchase the store's sales racks, display cases and furniture. Truly everything must go!
Tags: Kmart , last store , last week , closing , shutting down , final sale , everything must go , Image
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Ernie, a red-fronted macaw parrot, is missing from his home.
His owner, Rachel Goossen, is concerned that a good Samaritan may have taken him in to help but doesn't know how to contact her. The bird recently went missing from Willow Springs Road near Biosphere 2. According to a tip from workers at the Biosphere, he landed near a man working on fencing, who took Ernie with the intention of keeping him safe, but lost track of him in the South Tucson area, somewhere between Tyndall Avenue and 36th Street and 24th Street and 6th Avenue.
According to Goossen, the parrot is in very good health and could have flown miles from that location. She has not received a single tip since, so she is continuing to spread the word that Ernie does have a home and people are looking for him.
Ernie and Rachel are members of Arizona Free Flight, a local group of bird enthusiasts that advocate for responsible bird stewardship and safe free flight. To see photos and videos of what they do, visit their Facebook page.
If you see Ernie, help him return home by calling Rachel directly at (919) 827-2609. No questions will be asked. She just wants him back safely because she and her other parrot, Ernie's brother, miss him very much.
Tags: Missing , Bird , Macaw , Parrot , Arizona Free Flight , Image
Thursday, February 14, 2019
In February and March, select Pima County Public Library book clubs will read Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, a book that will change the way we look at poverty in America.
The series will culminate with a community dialogue, "The Eviction Problem in Pima County: What can we do?," led by Stacy Butler, director of the Innovation for Justice Program and founding member of Step Up to Justice.
BOOK DISCUSSIONS
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 10 a.m. – noon
Oro Valley Public Library (Registration is required for this event. Please call 594-5580)
Saturday, Feb. 23, 10 – 11 a.m.
Murphy-Wilmot Library
Thursday, March 7, noon – 1 p.m.
Joel D. Valdez Main Library
Monday, March 11, 1:30 – 3 p.m.
Dusenberry-River Library
PANEL DISCUSSION (You don't need to have read the book to attend)
Thursday, March 21, 6 – 8 p.m.
Joel D. Valdez Main Library
Tags: eviction , book review , meetings , libraries , Pima County , Public Library , discussion , panel , Image
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
One Tucson company is celebrating the 2019 Girl Scouts cookie season with a big promise: They will buy cookies from every girl who visits them this Thursday, Feb. 7.
For the fourth year in a row, Trusting Connections nanny agency and sitter service co-founders Rosalind Prather and Caroline Wesnitzer are vowing to purchase cookies from every scout that visits between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. while they set up shop at the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona headquarters (4300 E. Broadway Blvd.)
The cookie sales don't just help fund Girl Scout programming. Young women also learn entrepreneurial skills and self confidence.
From the Girl Scouts website: “It's about the experience of running her very own cookie sale, working with others, and building a lifetime of confidence as she learns five skills (goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics) essential to leadership, success, and life.”
In the spirit of the programs’ educational goals, girls will be asked to give either individual or group sales pitches to Prather and Wesnitzer. The scouts will then draw from a jar with notes indicating how many boxes the company will purchase—between one and 25.
Signs, posters and other sales props are welcomed.
Tags: girl scouts , cookies , support , sales , cookie sales , Trusting Connections , sales pitch , Image
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Reflections About Bears Ears: An Evening in Honor of Karen Strom. In 2015 and 2016, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition in southern Utah advocated for the establishment of Bears Ears National Monument, and in 2017, it already had to respond to a downsizing of the monument. At this event, Keynote speaker Carleton Bowekaty, member of both the coalition and the Pueblo of Zuni Tribal Council, will speak. Also on the lineup is astronomer and photographer Stephen Strom, who made a recent gift of Native American art to the Arizona State Museum in memory of his late wife. He’ll be talking about his project documenting Bears Ears, and will be signing copies of his new books, Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land and Voices from Bears Ears (which he wrote with Rebecca Robinson). 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23. Center for English as a Second Language, 1100 James E. Rogers Way, room 103. Reception and book signing to follow program. Free. Details here.
School of Art’s Letterpress Lab. You probably didn’t know that the UA has a letterpress lab, just like you probably didn’t know how many different kinds of printing methods and practices there are in this great big world: letterpress printing, experimental printing, paper techniques, binding and a booker. And in terms of the technology: board shears, paper cutters, book presses, guillotines, wire-o-binder, a laser cutter, a photopolymer plate maker and an industrial sewing machine. The School of Art’s Letterpress lab has it all! Go check it out at this special tour. 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23. School of Art Graduate Studios, 1231 N. Fremont Ave. Free, but reservations required. Details here. Events compiled by Briannon Wilfong, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.
Tags: food , heritage , letterpress , School of Art , Bears Ears , The Presidio District , things to do , Tucson events , Image , Video
Monday, January 21, 2019
Nearly three dozen Pima County residents have reportedly contracted hepatitis A in Pima County in the last three months, according to the county health department. Twenty cases of already been reported in 2019.
People experiencing homelessness and those who are using or trying to quit using illicit drugs are particularly at risk, and the county has urged they receive the hepatitis A vaccine. Of the 34 cases linked to the outbreak since Nov. 1, 27 have resulted in a hospitalization.
“As we continue to see cases, we are diligently working to protect the people most vulnerable from becoming infected,” said Deputy County Health Director Paula Mandel, in a release. “We are seeing this outbreak hit users of illicit drugs, those trying to quit illicit drugs, and people experiencing homelessness. We want to get the word out that the safe and effective vaccine and good hand hygiene can help protect you.”
Pima County is already working with area service providers, community health clinics, substance treatment facilities and other similar institutions to establish vaccination clinics.
“We are taking action to get ahead of this; to stop this infectious disease from continuing to spread,” said Dr. Carlos Perez-Velez, Health Department Deputy Chief Medical Officer, in a release. “With the continued support and cooperation of partners throughout the community, we have been able to provide more and more hepatitis A virus vaccinations to the vulnerable residents at high risk.”
Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease that can damage the liver. Infected people shed the virus in their stool in high concentrations from two to three weeks before to one week after onset of clinical illness, and thereby spread the virus during this time. They often carry it on poorly washed hands. It spreads to others when they swallow invisible amounts of the virus through food, drink, sexual activity or after touching contaminated objects. While proper hand washing can prevent spread of infection, vaccination provides long-term protection against the virus.
Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea. People can be contagious for two weeks before, and one week after, symptoms appear, and unknowingly spread the virus. Rarely, the virus can cause liver failure and death – especially in persons with impaired immune systems or chronic liver disease.
HAV vaccine is readily available at doctor’s offices, health clinics, and pharmacies. People who cannot pay for vaccinations or who do not have health insurance should contact the Health Department or a community health clinic near them. Places to get vaccinated can be found at www.pima.gov/hep-a
The county has provided more information about hepatitis A infection and where to get the HAV vaccine, at pima.gov/hep-a or over the phone at (520) 724-7797.
Tags: Hepatitis A , hep A , outbreak , public safety , health , vaccine , Pima County , awareness , health department , Image
