I think I may have a skewed sense of humanity…It may be
because of the people I have in my life but every time I read something online
that’s positive and it says, “Faith in humanity restored,” I think to myself…I
never lost my faith in humanity…
Now maybe I’m in the minority here, and I have certainly
encountered my share of mean, heartless, and downright nasty people, but I’d
like to think that they make up the minority of people in this world. I’d like
to think that when most of us are given the opportunity to do what is right and
what is nice…I’d like to think that most of us would do that, I know most of
the people I consider friends would. Now having said that, I’d like to emphasize
my point by giving you all a look into the 9th Annual Diane Brumwell
Memorial “Hoops for Hope.”
Hoops for Hope is the basketball tournament my family holds
every year to raise funds for cancer research through The V Foundation. The
first year of the tournament, our mother was still alive and helped us to plan
it after my brother and I had participated in a basketball tournament also used
to raise funds for The American Cancer Society (the first two years of the
tournament we were also members of the ACS).
The first tournament was put together in under a month and
consisted of four teams. The local bus drivers, our rag tag group, and two
other teams of really good friends who just wanted to play basketball and also
help out some of their friends. Together we were able to raise $4,500 and we
were pretty pumped. We couldn’t get over the generosity of people to just give
us $4,500 for our cause!
That summer we lost our mother to ovarian cancer, but she
was truly an amazing person, and without her there certainly was a giant hole
in all of our hearts and an overall empty feeling that may never be completely
filled again. She was certainly the reason that our family tends to want to see
the good in people rather than the bad. We give people a lot of chances and
tend to forgive easier than we should sometimes, but I’d rather think the best
of someone than the worst. If they prove you wrong, that’s their fault and
something that they have to live with.
After our mom passed we decided to keep the fundraiser
going. It served two purposes; first, it helped us to keep the memory of our
mom alive and served to help us to fill a void that had been placed in us by
losing her, secondly, we knew the pain that losing someone to cancer could
cause and we really didn’t want anyone else to have to go through that same
pain. We knew that we wouldn’t cure cancer overnight and that many more would
lose the battle until we do find a cure…but we wanted to instill a feeling of
hope…we wanted to find a cure, and we wanted people to know that although
cancer took our mom, it couldn’t take her spirit and that the only thing cancer
did do was enlist some pretty pissed off people in the fight against it.
The second tournament raised over $9,000 and we had even
more awesome people join us in the fight. We had doubled our funds in just one
year and we began to see that there were a ton of people out there that had our
same drive to win this battle. We also started looking into the disbursement of
funds through the ACS and although they were doing a lot of great things, they
were also paying their administration with the funds being donated to them. We
decided to look for other organizations to donate the money to after we
discovered (at the time of the switch) that the ACS was designating 18% of the
funds to administration and 15% to research. The rest was divvied up amongst
several other positive programs, but after losing our mom to cancer we wanted a
cure which meant we needed the money to go to research. That’s when we found
The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
The V Foundation was set up by the Jim Valvano family and
ESPN. An endowment fund was set up right away as well to ensure that every cent
that was donated to the organization could be used directly in the research and
discovery of a cure. Jim Valvano’s story and love of life closely mirrored that
of our mother’s and his sentiment that the money raised through this
organization may not save his life, but may save his children’s lives or
someone that you love, was exactly why we wanted to keep our tournament going.
We had found the organization that we strongly believe will play a major factor
in the development of the cure for cancer. It hasn’t happened yet but the more
we spread the word about this organization and the more money we can get in the
right hands (theirs) the better chance we stand of an end to cancer…and the
rest of this blog is going to be about the amazing people that we know that
will be a part of that…
Let’s fast forward now to this year…
Six years ago was a huge year for us because we went over
the $100,000 mark for funds raised through the tournament, which means that
every year we had kept growing the amount brought in. Sure we had a couple of
crappy teams who didn’t grasp the purpose of the tournament and wouldn’t raise
any funds and then would come and complain about this or that the whole time…but
those individuals were asked to not come back until they got what the
tournament was about. So six years it took us to get to $100,000, not so bad
right?! Well this year was our 9th year of the tournament (just
three more years have passed since going over $100,000) and something
unbelievable happened…we just went over $200,000 for the life of the
tournament!
The four teams that got together and started this tournament
nine years ago still play a huge role in the tournament every year, and
although some of the people don’t play anymore, they’ll forever be part of this
amazingly heartwarming event. The number of people we all consider friends has
grown significantly and even more impressive are the people you consider more
than friends, at this point they’re just family.
What started as four men’s teams getting together has now
turned into 14 Men’s Teams and 6 Women’s teams, and although you still have a
team or two that doesn’t raise significant funds, the top ten teams in this
year’s tournament raised over $24,000! We get those bottom 10 to really grab
ahold of their potential and we’ll do $50,000 no problem!
From the start of the tournament Ryan and I decided that the
thing people should really be competing for was how much money they could
raise, so we created a “HOPE” Award which goes to the team that raises the most
money. A few years ago we really started to see that individuals on teams were
kicking butt getting donations and some of the other members wouldn’t even
donate or wouldn’t donate much at all, so we talked it out and decided to up
the “HOPE” Award idea and created an All-Tournament Team based on the top five
individual fund raisers for the tournament too.
The “HOPE” Award didn’t have as much of an impact as the
All-Tournament Team until this year. The fact that people really seem to be
competing now, off the court, to make the All-Tournament Team is exactly what
we hoped for! There are two individuals who have really made a competition out
of who’s going home with the MVP, Corey Hanson, and Kyle Simonson, and the
results have been absolutely spectacular! This year alone, the two of them
raised over $6,000 together…in case you need a reminder, that’s over $1,500
more than our whole first tournament between two individuals! If you add in the
rest of this year’s All-Tournament Team (6 people this year) the group raised
about $10,000! SIX PEOPLE!!!
I posted in our Facebook Group the rest of the totals for
the All-Tournament Team Members but here’s a run-down of both the
All-Tournament Team and “HOPE” Award finalists:
All-Tournament
Team
1.
Kyle Simonson - $3,230
2.
Corey Hanson - $2,853
3.
Allison Hong - $1,285
4.
Ben Swendra - $1,059
5.
Kristen Weiss - $707
6.
Nicole Hoefs - $695
“HOPE” Award
Standings
1.
9th Annual Tornado Drill - $8,322
(with more coming in!)
2.
The Rainbow - $5,180
3.
Make a sWish - $2,806
4.
Mary Ann’s Merry Maidens - $2,070
5.
Jagol Honey – $1,507
6.
Wilcox Champs - $1,026
It’s important to note that this was “Make a sWish’s” first
year participating in the tournament and two of its members, Allison Hong and
Nicole Hoefs, were both on the All-Tournament Team! Expect even better things
out of these awesome girls in the future! I’m thinking there will at least be a
three way battle for that MVP next year, which is exactly what we want and
need!!!
So the people that are playing in the tournament are really
coming together to raise a bunch of money for cancer research, that was always
our goal when we started the tournament and we’re very happy and proud that
every year the players keep surprising us…but there’s an element we never
really saw coming that makes us even more proud, and it makes us feel pretty
lucky to have such amazing friends/family, and that is the people who don’t
play who are busting their brains, backs, etc. to come up with more ways to
raise money!
One of the players in the tournament works at a bar in Fargo/Moorhead
and was asking for ways to raise more money and I suggested that he talk to
some of the waitresses about possibly donating a portion or all of their tips
for one night, and I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy. A few years ago, I
never would have thought about this either…but then an awesome friend of ours
contacted us and told us that she was going to do just that for us. She has now
inspired a few other individuals to do the same thing and I think in total they
raised over $500 for cancer research together!
But that’s just one way that people are coming together to
join Hoops for Hope in our quest for a cure. We have a couple amazing people
who have joined us and take pictures every year as well as sell raffle tickets,
sign people up for Be The Match, and do whatever else we ask, or even don’t ask
them to do. One of them has now fought her own battle with cancer and has
emerged victorious! The more money we raise collectively, the more stories like
hers we’ll have to tell.
Another amazing individual undertakes our “Locks of Love”
donation every year, which is a pretty big deal to me as I donated my hair our
very first year of the tournament…I am a bit of a hippy at heart and 9 years
ago I had the hair to go with that persona! But as you hear a lot of people do,
I wanted to shave my head to show solidarity with my mom who had lost her hair
when she started chemotherapy and also…she hated my long hair! But I was able
to donate, and now my friend continues that tradition and was even able to have
a stylist donate her time this year to cut hair at the tournament and got five
donations as well!
That same person found a partner in crime this year and
together they did a bake sale, on top of baking lots of goodies for our
concession stand, they organized a head shaving fund raiser out at our annual
social and one of their children even emptied out his piggy bank and donated it
all to Hoops for Hope! Together I think the pair raised about $1,000 for the
cause, and everything they did was completely on their own accord.
Another awesome person that started out as a frequent tuber
and has become like family, now sells Scentsy and holds an online party as well
as sells at the tournament and donates all of those profits to the cause! This
year between the online party, sales at Hoops for Hope, and a Scentsy basket
that she donated for the silent auction, she raised over $300!
One other individual I’d like to single out is Gary Gruhot.
I’m guessing a lot of people reading this don’t know who he is but I’d like to
tell you a little about what he’s done the last couple of years…First of all he
won a .22 rifle last year at some other event and donated it to our cause and
we were able, with the help of our awesome raffle ticket sellers, to raise over
$500 from that item alone, that doesn’t even count the money he personally
donates. This year he donated the awesome generator that we had on auction
which is worth about $3,950…and I’m pretty sure we also fleeced him for
donations and raffle tickets as well!
Kind of an unsung hero in the whole tournament is the
Lafayette High School as well. Every single year we go to the school and ask if
it is alright if we use the gym for the event and every single year they don’t
even bat an eye. Even better, they allow us to use the facility for free. It’s
very important for us to be able to save money wherever we can when we organize
Hoops for Hope every year because the more we save, the more we can put towards
the cause. Without the wonderful Red Lake Falls School District #630 we never
would have been able to accomplish all that we have together.
Now the organizations that have really gotten involved are
also a huge part of the success of the event and although there are far too
many to thank personally, I’d like to say that just about every business in Red
Lake Falls has donated and continues to donate to Hoops for Hope every year.
When we got out and get our donations, we don’t tend to hear, “no” a lot
anymore, which is pretty amazing. When we go through the checks we also notice
that so many businesses are really getting on board with the fund raiser from
everywhere and we can’t thank them enough, or the individuals who seek out
these donations. You’re all doing an amazing job and we know you’ll keep making
us prouder and prouder each and every year!
Other organizations in Red Lake Falls which have truly been
fantastic partners, really, are; TnJ’s Bar and Grill who throw our “Thank You
Social” every year as well as does a Spaghetti dinner on Friday and Saturday
nights to raise more money for the cause, The Lions Club of RLF which each year
hosts a Sunday breakfast and has been so kind to donate the proceeds of this event
to us, The Red Lake Falls Gazette who really did an awesome job in helping us
promote the event this year and got the word out about the amazing things the
Hoops for Hope community has done, SuperOne and Hugo’s for donating buns for
our concessions, Asian Foods for donating Hot Dogs, buns, and cash, and Perry
Duden Farms for donating all of the beef this year as well!
There are countless individuals, organizations, and groups
that have joined together to make Hoops for Hope such a tremendous success every
year and I know as soon as I publish this I’m going to say to myself, “How the
heck did you forget ____________?!” and I truly hope that you forgive me, but
it’s an amazing problem to have that we have so many unbelievable people in our
lives that are helping us in our quest to end cancer that we can’t always
remember every single person’s individual effort. That sounds kind of crappy to
say we could forget something, but really we don’t it’s just that there is so
much goodness going through our heads all of the time that it’s nice to have
this overflow of goodness and belief in people that things keep popping back
into your head at different times!
We’ve mentioned it to a few people now but haven’t really
told everyone because we really want to have the money in hand before we were
going to make the big announcement but the money that is still coming in is
coming in for sure so I think it’s safe to tell everyone that this year’s Hoops
for Hope tournament will raise over $40,000…nine years ago that figure was
$4,500 and we thought people were pretty amazing then! We keep expecting the
funds to level off one of these years, that you can only grow so big…but
together we raised over $7,000 more than we had the previous year!
You might not really truly know my family, but by joining us
in our quest to end cancer I can truly say that we consider you our friends. We’re
also extremely blessed to consider many of you as part of our family, even
though we have no blood ties…the bond we share is just as strong and we can
never thank you enough.
One quick story then I promise I’m done…Our friend Kyle was
getting donations one day at his local watering hole when he met a guy who was
actually upset with him for even asking. He said that he had donated all kinds
of money over the years to causes like ours and that nothing ever seemed to
happen. He had lost three family members to cancer and he was convinced that
nothing we do will make a difference. Kyle and he went back and forth
throughout the night a few different times with Kyle stating that if he didn’t
want to donate he didn’t have to, that he was trying to raise money because his
friends had lost their mom and that they didn’t want others to have that same
heartache. After about the third or fourth time, the guy comes up and hands
Kyle $20. Personally I feel like we can all get that way sometimes, like no
matter the effort we put in we just can’t make a difference…but lucky for us we
get to hear stories from both sides…
A couple of days after the tournament we received a letter
from one of our childhood friends/neighbors. The message read: “What an awesome
cause that Hoops for Hope is! Your mom would be so proud of you! My
father-in-law was recently diagnosed with cancer. They believe it was caught
early. It was a reminder to me how important research is and through your
efforts and others he will survive.”
I hope the awesome person who sent this as well as a huge
donation, doesn’t mind that I’m posting this, but I think that it’s an
important reminder to everyone that together we are making a difference. We
certainly still have those stories of heartache and loss every year, but we’re
getting more and more stories of survival and triumph and I know our family
strongly believes that its due to the amazing people who have truly made Hoops
for Hope their own. Our friends, family, and future friends that will continue
to team up until we find an end to this disease.
We can’t thank you all enough for everything that you do.
Without all of you that hole that was left in our hearts when we lost our mom
would still be there. We can never replace the amazing person that we lost to
cancer, but having the amazing people in our lives that we now have we feel
like her life is serving an even greater purpose. If you’ve lost someone to
this disease or know someone that is battling it and have joined us in our
cause I hope that you know that your loved one and you are now serving a
greater purpose as well. Together we will find a cure and we will see an end to
cancer! In the immortal words of Jim Valvano, “Don’t Give Up…Don’t Ever Give
Up!!!”
If you need it…I hope this restores your faith in humanity,
but more likely, I hope it serves as a reminder of the wonderful people in this
world, and that more times than not…people truly are awesome!
Thank you so much, we love you all!!!
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