About Lea's Foundation

In 1998, Lea Michele Economos, a young woman who died of leukemia at the age of 28, made a dying wish to her parents that others would not face the hardships she encountered by finding a cure for this disease. Her family started this charity to carry on that wish. Today, Lea’s Foundation takes an active role in finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma and to better the lives of people living with these diseases. At the UCONN Health Center, the Lea’s Foundation Center for Hematologic Disorders sponsors research in this field. A new program covers the cost of bone-marrow testing to help recruit life-saving transplants for patients. Also, annual scholarships are given to children with leukemia who are planning to attend nursery school. For more information on other projects carried out by Lea’s Foundation, please visit their website at www.LeasFoundation.org.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Day 29: Kindness in Kansas

Today's second breakfast took place at a Subway in Larned (they have avocado now, have you been watching TV lately?). There, we tried our absolute best to find a place to stay 60 miles down the road. After finding scant motels, I decided to call the Nickerson First United Methodist Church in search of well-known hospitable folks. This is something I am sure would never work in the northeast, but after having been in Kansas a few days, I had the impression that the local economy depends very much on knowing everyone in town, and being superhuman-ly kind. The lady I spoke with gave me the name and number of "June". Turns out, June and her husband Jim had hosted something like 80 exchange students and 800 cyclists over the years. She is a retired teacher, and he is the town mayor. Really. They let us shower, gave us beds to sleep in, and insisted on waking up at our ungodly hour and cooking us pancakes. I was overwhelmed by the gentle, comfortable generosity of our hosts. June was facile with the vivid life details of all her past guests. We will certainly pass their info along to next year's riders so they can have the privilege of a warm home to stay in as well.

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