First Friday Update - January 2, 2009
Happy New Year!
I hope this First Friday Update finds you and yours all well, staying warm (or cool if you're in the southern hemisphere), and enjoying the new year!
Nevus Outreach Maps Updated
For some time now, we have been posting maps that show where the people in our registry are located. In December we updated the maps again. You can find them on our web site, or by clicking here. Our thanks to ConocoPhillips for underwriting this ongoing project, and our thanks to Arlen Wiens who continues to generate the maps for our web site. More countries to be added soon!
Endowment Challenge Met
You did it! Thanks to generous gifts from visionary donors, including a $2,000 challenge gift from Carolyn Stewart, Nevus Outreach was able to meet the goal of raising $6,000 for an endowment which received a $3,000 match from the Bartlesville Community Foundation. This means that Nevus Outreach now has an Endowment which will return funds to the organization every year in perpetuity. This idea was the vision of co-founder Kathy Stewart in 1997, and we are pleased to announce that it has come to pass. You can read more about it here.
Nevus Researcher Addresses American Society for Cell Biology
Nevus Outreach principal researcher Dr. Bernhard Wehrle-Haller, from the University of Geneva, spoke before the American Society for Cell Biology at their annual meeting in San Francisco in December. Dr Wehrle-Haller led a symposium “Signaling from the Extracellular Matrix” which relates to the research he is doing for us. While Berni was in town, I enjoyed dinner with him, Valerie Morgan of the Morgan Family Foundation (and mom of a child with a nevus), Jim Roethe and Sarah Cunningham (donors, and nevus parent/grandparent who have raised money specifically for this project), and Pierre Gremillion, the Chairman of our Board of Directors.
Conference 2010
Conference 2010 has been scheduled for July 7-10 in Dallas, Texas
There will be lots of adjacent activity, with nevus families arriving as early as the 4th of July weekend, and leaving as late as July 11th. 12 years ago, people didn’t know others with giant nevi – now we take it for granted.
Come to the conference!
Mark Beckwith
Executive Director
Nevus Outreach, Inc.
918-331-0595
