Looks like we are beginning to get this under control. I had hoped by now to have everything up and running, but we are still a little behind. Shortly, we will have a real news post here beyond this status report.
At this point, everything should be up and running except for the Calendar and the store. My next job is too make sure that is true. Then I have a news item to post here. Then I will start to work on the Calendar. That will be spotty here at the start as I figure out how to garner everything that is going on in the NEC/NET/CS community and get it all located in one spot without making myself entirely insane. The store is going to be another day or two while I figure out how to make shipping charges work.
Everything you see here has been done by volunteers. Every penny we raise–above the cost of making the merchandise you may buy in the store–will go to researching this cancer and coming up with a cure. No board member will draw a salary or a wage. We are all doing this because Jane Dybowski mattered in our lives.
That said, I need to thank some people here publicly: Carissa Broadbent designed the site using the logo created by Bonnie Cohen from a photo I took in the 1990s. Carissa has worked endlessly and tirelessly to give this site the look and feel we wanted it to have. If you like the look of the site, the credit is all hers. If the site feels too word-filled and newspaper-like, that is all on me. Sorry. I like words. Bonnie Cohen’s work on the logo also deserves all the praise I can give it. I am blessed to have had these two talented young women volunteer their time to this project. If you have design work you need done in either field, talk to them. Pay them well. Their karma and talent have earned them that.
Mike Goeppner gets the credit for designing the backend of the site. I have learned that the behind the scenes stuff has an elegance all its own. If the site works as flawlessly as I expect it to, that is all because of Mike’s efforts to get everything here to play nicely together. The three of you need to make sure we add the design credits page some time soon and that it links to each of your business efforts. I owe all of you big time.
I could not handle much of the writing on this project. Some of the material was hard enough to talk about for me, let alone write about. To Meg (Allen) Flanagan, Emily Brinkmeyer, and Katie Dupere I also owe a great debt of gratitude, as I do to Chari Swist for agreeing to edit some of what came in.
Dr. Jennifer Chan was Jane’s oncologist at Dana-Farber. She agreed to read all the medical copy we generated to make sure nothing got lost in the translation from med-speak to layman’s terms. Despite how busy she is she has not missed a deadline and her comments made the IBS vs. NEC piece much better than it was. She was our rock in the hospital. Her compassion and her friendship to both of us meant–and mean–more than I can say .
To Ellen Eisner in particular, but to all the folks at Caring for Carcinoid Foundation as well, my great thanks for your encouragement and your advice.
To Scott and Wendy Atkinson, to Morgan Bozarth, and to Arlyn Bottcher, my thanks and undying gratitude for helping me get through these last nine months. You have no idea what your friendship has meant to me. You helped take my dreams and begin to make them real. John Moniz and Gail Silvia also deserve more than a word here. I can’t tell you how much those Friday dinners have helped.
There are dozens of others. But I have much to finish here yet tonight–and your turns will come as your projects bear fruit.
Truly–all my friends–my debt to each and all is so great that all I have were not enough to repay you with in this life–save you accept my love and gratitude.
Pax et lux,
Harry
