Canoe 4 The Cure was conceived as “The Brannon Family Foundation” and was first discussed while visiting my mother in our family home in Austin, Texas. My mother being a double survivor of cancer in the mid-1960’s and most recently in 2005, and myself having been mis-diagnosed in 2004 and finally properly diagnosed after Hurricane Katrina in December 2005, during which I was a first responder from day one until my hospitalization. I was finally able to start treatment at UAMS in Little Rock Arkansas in March 2006. The discussion being more about the people we met that could not afford the treatment and/or basic living necessities to the pointwhere they were living in their cars or were completely without any place to stay. Then there was our problems and our "woe are we" attitude. Our mother, who had always had a pretty rough time throughout her life, had always taught us that there were people in a lot worse off position in life than we were. Her message tried also to instill my brother and I to, "Never let the sun go down on your anger", and to, "Always take time to stop and smell the roses", but most importantly, she taught us to realize that, "We are blessed and should always try and help others worse off than ourselves." WEcame together and discussed solutions that could be in practice but either aren't or weren't, such as; federal spending being diverted from research to patient assistance, insurance caps, Medicare, as well as private foundations. We thought about how many years we had written checks to different societies pertaining to cancer as well as hungry and homeless children and thats when we thought of a way that we could help all those people we had met along the way. At this point our research began.
After calling serveral organizations to see how we could help, we were told that in order to become partners and be able to use their established logos and names as fund raising incentives, we had to become a non-profit 501C3. After speaking with a private foundation, we researched the idea, but found that the private foundation route was prohibited due to high IRS application costs, as well as accountant and attorney fees. It almost seemed easier to just stay on the couch and continue writing checks while taking my tax deduction while watching some weelly soap opera.
After all of this research however, it was decided that the family foundation could come later on when more time and funding was available.
So rather than than just write a check to an established entity, we would do a fund raiser that would require no pivate foundations' expenses or time, but only require them to collect the donations that we were suggesting that people send. We decided to select organizations that were not "top heavy" and who's CEO's salaries had shown a propensity for giving a majority of the funds to those in need. These would be the specified entities, organizations and hospitals that had funds already set up purposefully for patients in need of financial assistance or patient assistance funds. Several of those such organizations turned out to be ones where i had received my treatment, such as Ochsner Hospital Foundation's Philanthropy Department Patience Assistance Funds and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock UAMS Family for Children and Adults residential facility.
Then we had to figure out something to do that would bring forth a big enough bang to accumulate awareness and funds to the plight of people most in need. Hence the neccessity for "Canoe4TheCure" involving myself; a former Mississippi River towboat pilot and Merchant Marine Officer with all kinds of expierence from training, to coping and living with suffering, and yes: Slowly dying from active Multiple Myeloma, despite double stem cell transplants and several bouts of chemotherapy using four times the average doses that a patient would receieve. All efforts, however promising, have left the doctors efforts in vain as my disease remains far from remission.
Sometime around October 1, 2008 my family will assist me in launching a specially engineered canoe that is designed for severely handicapped individuals. In which, over a period of several months, I will attempt to safely navigate through the ten states bordering the Mississippi River from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with hopes of also making it to Pilottown, Louisiana, where my wife and her family completely lost their home during Hurricane Katrina.
To acquiesce to a couple doctors' very strong demands, my spouse and family will be following me down river roads and highways in the back country in their attempt to stay as close as possible to me. This is a neccessity due to the risk of needing emergency medical evaluation due to my still active cancer and to assist with the several complications that have arrisen in my daily life. They will be carrying extra oxygen bottles, medical equipment and supplies, and food and water. Also along for the trip will be Rocky, our family dog who (against doctor's wishes) has spent alot of time around me, bringing great joy and love to my troubled home. Due to our own experiments, we have been able to assure that some of my meidcal problems, including a fungus that cannot be medically stopped, was not caused by Rocky.
The reason behind our choice to hold the fund raiser the way we have chosen is so that we, as a family, and myself personally, will be above reproach by having the donors give directly to the facilities themselves. This is done specifically because some donors might have another hospital in mind, perhaps due to ties with their own loved ones care, employment or even just wanting to give back locally. With this method, we feel more states, more facilities, and more people can reap the benefits of what we are attempting to do. Plus, due to the fact we are not a non-profit 501C3 entity, and do not want to get entangled with handling other people's funds, it is much more practical that we list organizations that we deem worthy or for the donors to make their own choice on where their money ends up. ALl that we ask is that in the memo area on their checks, the donors please put "Patients ASsistance Funds" and perhaps mention the name of our event in recognition of "Canoe4theCure".