The 2nd Annual “Art for Jack, Celebrating Children’s Art” family art event for Jack’s Angels Foundation is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th, 3:30pm at the High Desert School in Acton, CA. The event includes art workshops for children beginning at 4pm, musical guests, a magic show, “Jack’s Young Artists” –performances from local young artists, art exhibits, auction, raffle, and a special presentation from Center Stage Opera–whew. That’s quite a bit! Admission is a suggested donation of $5, and event proceeds benefit the “for Jack” DIPG research fund at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Art for Jack 2015 is slated for Sunday, May 3.
May is brain tumor awareness month! Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children, yet remain one of the least-funded areas of cancer research. DIPG, a pediatric brainstem tumor with virtually no survivors, is responsible for 80% of pediatric brain tumor deaths each year. We believe that finding solutions to DIPG in scientific research will invariably represent advances in our understanding of cancer and medicine. Roughly 300 families are afflicted with it yearly in the U.S. and face the certain death of a child. Raising awareness for this unacceptable reality will hopefully aid in bringing about change in the allocation of research funds at the federal level, where only 4% of the National Cancer Institutes allotment for cancer research goes to pediatric cancer. Working in concert with others, this is one of our goals. Equally important is that families feel they have a living contribution to make to the research, aside from autopsy–which is extremely valuable, but very sad and lonely on its own for the family.
Our hope is to find a home for the “Art for Jack” traveling gallery that features children’s art, as well as a coffee house/collectibles store to serve as a home for our foundation and it’s activities, and as a forum for other charities with activities that we share and/or support. The proceeds will benefit DIPG research and fund awareness raising events, which in-turn also fund research.
www.curesearch.org, American Children's Cancer Organization, The Lyla Nsoulis Foundation for DIPG Research, "Focus on Children's Cancer" Conference, 2014, National Institutes of Health
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