The Cancer Fight

The Cancer Fight is using Blogger.com to post new and exciting blogs more frequently. We have not been too happy with the limitations of our last blog provider, and we are moving to a more accessible interface. No worries! the blogs you've come to know and expect will still be here! We have only changed our blog provider. The Cancer Fight's Home will always be the same!

Over time, the address of this blog will be incorporated into our site's domain. Since we are only playing with this idea, we are going to wait to do so. Eventually, the URL of this blog will change to something like www.TheCancerFight.org/Blog."

Until this day, please come by our beta blog center to check it out and leave feedback!

Starting on October 1st, The Cancer Fight will be hosting a contest for those on campus at UW-Whitewater. While near Hyland and the UC, check-in on Facebook once a day to "The Cancer Fight" to vote for the "Cancer Charity of the Month". The month of October will be for Livestrong. We will hold a contest for two more charities in the following months. November will be Susan G. Komen Foundation Month, and December is all about The Macc Fund. At the end of the semester, the percentage of the total check-ins for a charity means the percentage of our profits that will go there. Be sure to spread the word!

"What if I do not have a smartphone?" .... Easy! When you attend our bi-weekly meetings every Tuesday at 8pm in Hyland 1307, you can check-in in-person. These check-ins will count as 15 votes (people with smartphones who have already checked-in can do this as well for extra voting)!

In total, your votes can really add up. Either way, each of these selected charities will receive a healthy donation from The Cancer Fight, but it’s up to the students of UW-Whitewater to decide how much!

Official Contest Details Here

The Cancer Fight Organization has been very active these last couple of weeks! With our first meeting last Tuesday, where we had a wonderful turnout, we welcomed everyone to the group and talked over plans for the year. This week was full of awesome happenings. I was interviewed for the Royal Purple (our university's newspaper), and had a photo shoot a few days later.

Wednesday is our Involvement Fair, where organizations all over campus set up a booth to promote their groups' presence. You can very well bet The Cancer Fight will be among those people! We plan to provide brochures from Livestrong, pamphlets regarding our organization, and membership flyers as well. We may have other fun things in store as well! Our main goal is to attract more members on campus, so we can full-heartedly bring the cancer awareness and support we aim for! I will certainly post an update about the fair as it happens tomorrow.

In other news, The Cancer Fight's expansion onto multiple social mediums is really taking off! Most of you know about our Facebook page; but recently I have been revamping the page to include some cool new features. Its new domain name is www.facebook.com/TheCancerFight . And I invite you to go check it out, and if you want, "like" us to hear more up-to-date posts regarding each week's play-by-play's. That's all from me for now. I am writing this while waiting for my chemistry class to start! It is shaping up to be a very busy semester - and likely year - for me. With 18 credits, two jobs, and starting up this organization, I have a lot on my plate to contend with. However, I am very confident in the mission of this organization, and I know that this will be a very good addition to the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater community!

Until next time,

Mark Liederbach

This is our last day in Astana. Tomorrow begins our trip to Uzbekistan, with a stop in Almaty. We traveled all around the city these past few days, and I’ve taken loads of pictures (all of which are being posted on Facebook and Google+). I was able to try some unique Kazakh food (though no horse yet, yet). I have also learned a few Russian basics, though not enough to really hold a conversation on my own.

Today we went into the old part of town to walk around a great summer location here in Astana. Along the river is a park where there are old carnival attractions and street vendors. Erik, Deanna, Adelaide, and I walked around, had ice cream, and great burgers. I also had the opportunity to get a picture with a steppe eagle! I’m sure that picture will be somewhere online shortly. I have already maxed out my memory cards capacity and continually have to dump a lot of my pictures onto the computer, so assuming uploading can proceed smoothly; these photos will become available shortly!

I will try to get another post in here shortly, though I am not sure where my next internet connection will be coming from.

But until next time,

Mark L

So I will be typing these next few blogs over the course of my trip to see my brother Erik and family in Kazakhstan. I will be gone for a total of two weeks, seeing places like Istanbul, Astana, and Uzbekistan. I am looking forward to have some quality time with Adelaide!

This first blog is somewhat interesting, as I am typing it from about 37,000ft over the Caspian Sea. I am on my flight into Astana. I have been traveling for roughly 20 hours now, and am definitely looking forward to sleeping in a comfortable bed. So far, the travels have been rather good. My flight from Chicago to Istanbul was not crowded at all, and there was room to lay across the row and try for some decent sleep (key word: try). After a small layover in Turkey, I am on my final leg of the journey for now.

I will certainly keep updating all of the happenings during the course of the next two weeks, and I will post plenty of pictures on Facebook (if you have added me on there), as well as Google+.

Until Next Time,

Mark L

Save The Date:  August 1st at 4:15pm

LIVE Streaming Broadcast

The Cancer Fight will be hosting a LIVE Google+ Hangout session to share our experiences with cancer. Everyone is welcome to join in, especially those dealing with cancer in sort of way. If you do not have a Google+ account, you have one of three options:

1.) Watch our LIVE video stream here and participate in the chat box there. We will be checking that box regularly and will attempt to incorporate what is said there with the hangout crowd.

2.) Message me on Facebook to receive an invite to Google+ some time before the discussion. Then come back to the stream and click on the "Join This Hangout" button below the video.

3.) Contact Me to recieve an invite to Google+ some time before the discussion.  Then come back to the stream and click on the "Join This Hangout" button below the video.

If you are already on Google+, be sure to follow me in order to see the reminder regarding the Hangout session. We will be recording this discussion for future viewers to see highlights. If you are wanting to participate in the Hangout session (rather than just the Livestream feed), be sure to have prepared a webcam, microphone, earphones, quiet surroundings, and a good internet connection.

We hope you can join us!

I’ve been extremely busy these last few days. I work all morning shifts at Esker and have not had a day off (including weekends) for two weeks! With 900 people per meal, it’s been hectic. I do absolutely love the money from it, however.

I don’t have much to report as far as the blood thinners, because I’ve been incredibly stable with the Warfarin, so no changes. As for the organization, we have drafted a preliminary budget which will serve its purpose for the start-up funds we have received.

I also managed my way to the Harry Potter midnight showing! Call me dorky but I was in line 3 hours early for the movie premiere in Whitewater. Nicole joined me after she finished work in Milwaukee. It was fantastic! We saw it in 3D, which there were mixed reviews for, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I will hopefully see it again sometime soon.

A final piece of news: I am now on Google Plus! In case you have not heard about this, it is a social networking site like Facebook, but – in my opinion – much better! It has video chat called ‘hangouts’ that can connect up to 10 people at once, plus a whole bunch of other new features. It is by invitation-only as it is currently in a limited field trial. Though it is hard to call it a small sample, because it already has over 20 million users since it started just 4 weeks ago! Either way, I really like it. And if you would like to see what all the fuss is about, and since you are all so supportive of me and The Cancer Fight’s purpose, I can email you an invitation.

Until next time,

Mark

A very happy Fourth of July to everyone! On Sunday, I went down to the lakefront to see the fireworks downtown. Whereas most people went near Summerfest to see the show, I ended up watching from a more secluded beach farther south. It was a lot of fun! There was a moderate crowd there, and most of them had built campfires. The show was a very cool spectacle, especially from our perspective. The fireworks seemed to be in near slow motion, and the sound that followed came roughly 20 seconds after the event! I sat at the beach for another minute after the show officially ended to listen to all of the bangs that finally reached our area.

On the fourth, I watched the Greendale parade for the first time in 12 years! Normally, I would be up north around the fourth of July. Afterwards, I went to the Brewers game on a $6 ticket. That was a great price considering $1 hot dog day as well! I finished up the fourth with watching the Franklin fireworks at the Duffy’s house. I had a great fourth of July, and I hope you did as well!

This week is a busy one! Most days this week, I start work at 7am to serve breakfast to summer camps here at UW-Whitewater. Though they are a little more rowdy than college students, they are much more grateful for the food we offer!  Anyways, it will be full of work and study on the physics project.

On the topic of the physics project, I will be heading into Janesville with my professor to purchase our last few items. It feels nice to finally have materials and instruments to work with. Before now, most of my work was online and doing research. Now is when I am able to finally get my hands dirty. Last week, I went down to the machine shop where I will be cutting up the metal parts and putting many of the pieces together. I will start that process this upcoming week.

In case you were wondering, my hair is actually getting to the point where I need to cut it! It seemed like forever, but it came back. It is the same color as before, but it is a lot softer this time around. I think that the fact that my hair is essentially normal again, I am changing my perspective of dealing with cancer to (hopefully) recovering. I can only hope that this trend of normality continues!

Mark L

This past Thursday was quite a humbling day. I was invited to the Greendale High School Theatre Department picnic. It was really nice to see a lot of my theatre friends there – many of whom I had not seen since I began the treatment process. At this event, many traditions are celebrated. Senior roles such as The Notebook – a book of traditions, duties, and guides to making the Greendale Theatre as special as it is – are passed on to the next generation of senior leadership. I also had the opportunity to see who won such awards as “Crew Member of the Year”, “Best Dancer”, “Best Singer”, and “Thespian of the Year”.

Perhaps the most amazing part was near the end of the event. Notebook-Holders Sara Weiss and Carly Gaeth spoke to the group. They talked about how the theatre family is a very close group that is always there to support each other. They mentioned that if someone were to need assistance for some kind of tragic circumstance, the theatre is there to lend their support; be it through compassion, a very large “Get Well” card, hugs, and in this case, financial aid. Over the course of this show season, the cast and crew had donated a little extra money out-of-pocket to raise funds in support of my situation. It was an enormously kind gesture for them to do so. Never in my wildest imagination did I expect the amount they had put forth. The Greendale Theatre family raised $700 towards the support of my charity, The Cancer Fight Organization, and in honor of other local and national cancer funds! I was blown away! The generosity of this act was simply astounding.

When I was in high school, theatre was a place that I knew I could let go of my fears, be comfortable around people, and learn life lessons that – and believe me when I say this – are useful for the rest of your life. I always remembered how the GHS Theatre shaped me, gave me the strength and will-power, and taught me how to be a good human being. I met friends that I couldn’t imagine life without. To know that they have done something like this for me only empowers these opinions. I will not forget this gesture, and I can only hope that one day, I can repay the GHS Theatre for their kindness and their unending support. THANK YOU GREENDALE THEATRE!

Mark L