SO MUCH THANKS FOR SEPTEMBER!!
This past September has been an incredible month of fundraising for Team G.
We saw an amazing number of individuals and groups coming together to raise awareness around children fighting cancer and fundraise for such an important mission…to end pediatric cancer through research.
Through our travels in the world of pediatric cancer, we have meet some incredible parents. Parents that have been fighting their child’s cancer and going above and beyond to raise precious funding so no families have to travel on this same devastating journey. We’ve met some of these parents and can I just tell you….they are amazing!
A special acknowledgement for these parents must be shared!
Gina and Mike Rodriguez who have continuously worked with The Bay Club to make this fundraising possible in honor of their daughter Sofia.
Gabrielle and Raul Contreras who dedicated their daughter Giselle’s Celebration of Life to raising funds for research at Lucile Packard.
Denise and Ralph Vernacchia for sharing their daughter Sofia’s journey and tirelessly putting forth efforts on this mission.
Ashley and Jason Khalipa for helping to share much needed awareness for pediatric cancer and all their efforts to hold life saving blood drives.
Brittany and Zach Smith for sharing your daughter Samantha’s story to promote awareness and for fundraising to better the chances of children fighting cancer.
A special thanks to The Bay Club and everyone on their team including Kelsey, Director of Social Media for all of the effort by her and her team on presenting these special children in a whole new light, the team in San Francisco for the awesome “Yoga on the Plaza” days, Larry and Nazanine and the team at Boulder Ridge for the Sunrise Yoga festivities, and the team behind the Charity Golf Tournament and dinner also at Boulder Ridge.
Special acknowledgment to Bay Club leaders:
These festivities were beyond incredible in their presentation. Their hard work and dedication was successful with over $50,000 for pediatric cancer. Yes, $50,000! Can you believe it? To see photos from the Sunrise Yoga, please CLICK HERE. And San Francisco, CLICK HERE.
We also celebrated our 5th annual “Raising Dough for Pediatric Cancer” bake sale with Stacey Botkin and the Circle of Friends Preschool Parents for making a huge effort at the Scotts Valley location. The Scotts Valley Market has always been so generous about letting us use their patio and we are grateful for this. Special thanks to Kellie Merritt, Claudia Cisneros, Mariela Rico and their whole family for inspiring the Aptos location and, once again, beating us with their fundraising efforts! Go Team Aptos! Thank you to all of the many bakers out there who helped contribute baked goods and our Scotts Valley commUNITY for always pitching in to the efforts of Team G, including Vine Hill parents, Surf City Coffee Co, and the My Scotts Valley Page. 
We’ve had more community love surrounding us this past September than I’ve seen in a while! Huge efforts were made by Pizza My Heart on 41st for their pizza eve, Kianti’s for their special fundraising night, and coming soon, Love Mondays at Discretion Brewery! Thank you for your dedication to pediatric cancer and for everyone who is eating out for a good cause! 
Our cycling event, that had some changes, was successful with raising funds for Team G. A special thanks goes out to Troy and Jackie Strong, Robert Connolly, Bob Connolly, and Kristofer Peterson for your efforts at our cycling event. Santa Cruz Sentinel for continuing to support our efforts.
All of the individuals who are behind the scenes at Team G, including Sharon Green, Kelly Luckey, Gretchen Wolff, Bill Sylvester, Terry Patterson and their huge family support.
A very special thank you to a little girl named Shannon from Vine Hill Elementary. Shannon came in to the office with some change and told our receptionist, “she wanted it to go to someone who could fight childhood cancer because her mom had cancer and she doesn’t want any kids to have as many holes as her mom does…”. I’ve held on to this little girls request and her $0.99 close to my heart as I want to make sure it gets to the right place. Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow.
On a personal note:
I always try to write from the heart and share our journey with all of those who continue to follow. It continues to motivate me to see people coming together to make a difference. Individually, we all play an important role but together, we can conquer so much more.
These last few weeks have proved challenging for me as I pursue my graduate degree to become a pediatric nurse practitioner and eventually work in hematology/oncology.
Cancer teaches you a few lessons. Celebrate all the victories, big and small. Live in the moment. Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today. Dream big, live big and give it all you got!
I was on my way to San Francisco for usual routine: wake up at 4:30am, drive from my little town of Scotts Valley to San Jose where luckily I have my firefighter family (thanks to the Staley’s and SJFD) to house my car for a couple of days. I walk over to the train station a couple of blocks away and catch the 5:45 or 6:03 train. Yes, this is all before the sun comes up and for those who know me, know I like to sleep in. Once I get to San Francisco, I hop on the Muni and make my way up to the campus by 8am. Two days of classes pretty much all day with a couple of Uber rides to my “home in the city” thanks to forever indebted to friends, Brad and Mary Jo, I wearily make my way home…head pounding from all of the information and thinking maybe somewhere along the way, I just might get it. Along with making sure there’s enough food at home, prepping my own food, studying and making sure there’s time for my family, I have to pack clothes and all to carry with me for two days. Downsizing is in order, which meant not carrying around my purse and huge wallet. Assumingly, I thought my 6 year-old Bridget would be ok if I borrowed her little wallet but I was wrong. She took out my ID and important credit cards letting me know I couldn’t borrow her wallet. Ok, no problem. I get it. Little sisters need their own things. I took that bundle she so neatly left on the counter and my oldest let me know I could borrow hers. Great. I will find hers and put my stuff in there later. Later never happened. Luckily I had some cash I shoved in with my stuff and figured, this is all a part of the journey. With some great new friends, my Starbucks app, and the bit of cash I had on me, I managed just fine.
This is the thing, life gives you what it wants. It’s how you handle it that makes you or breaks you.
Kristin Cosner