Delta Chi chapters and colonies have been innovative and creative in their fundraising ideas, with events such as 3 on 3 basketball tournaments, dodgeball competitions, golf tournaments, ‘Pudding Tug-O-War’, and various other activities contributing to our great cause.

Delta Chi’s generous philanthropy work ties in with our cause as Jim Valvano envisioned his foundation to be committed to teamwork and community. With Delta Chi’s involvement, the future is promising for The V Foundation as Jim’s legacy continues to inspire thousands of college students everywhere.

Our Blow the Whistle campaign was created to uphold the spirit of Jim Valvano’s message of “never giving up.” 100% of all new cash donations and net proceeds from events go to the cause, ensuring that every cent of your dollar will go directly to researchers in laboratories and research institutions. With this team effort, we believe that the athletic community can support Jim’s message through their generosity and commitment to teamwork.

Officials nationwide participate as individuals, associations, and leagues. For additional information visit www.jimmyv.org or contact Joyce Aschenbrenner (jaschenbrenner@jimmyv.org).

Founded by legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano and ESPN, The V Foundation and its supporters believe in the possibility of Jim’s final wish - to fund research to find the cures.

The fight against cancer is one we know we’ll win. Thanks for helping us reach this amazing milestone!

The Golf Classic is in a month and it looks like it will be one of the most special Classics we’ve had yet. We have such wonderful support in the community for this event.  Over the years, we have been lucky enough to enjoy the donations of sponsors in many different ways. Some interesting numbers on the Golf Classic:

• Over $15 Million: The amount of money The Classic has donated to The V Foundation over the last sixteen years.
• 217,924 drinks have been donated to The Classic.
• Over 336 celebrities have participated in The Classic.
• More than 370 sponsors have supported The Classic.
• More than 93 ESPN personnel have supported The Classic.
• Golfers in The Classic have taken 2,886,580 golf swings.
• An estimated 9,957 golf balls have been lost during play at The Classic.

Thanks to everyone who makes this a memorable event year after year.  Without you, it wouldn’t be possible!

Our annual Wine Celebration in Napa is almost here again, and this year we are honoring Terry Kuhn, a leukemia survivor. Our goal this year is to fund leukemia research grant, and we’ve used the Summer Social Media Campaign as a way to kickstart fundraising. The main feature of the campaign is our new YouTube video, which features Terry. Click here to watch it. The campaign will use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs on our website to help spread Jim’s message and help get more donors. Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages to see daily updates on The V Foundation.

The Wine Celebration is one of our most successful events because it reflects Jim’s philosophy to laugh, think and cry—all in one day! There’s nothing better than raising money for cancer research in the company of good friends, and that’s what makes the Wine Celebration so special.

Just returned from the Hooters of America National meeting where I met many of the franchise owners and, oh yes, watched the pageant to select Miss Hooters International 2010.  Sometimes this job has its moments!

Hooters of America not only presented The V Foundation with a $250,000 check, which is phenomenal in itself, but they also made a commitment to raise another $1 million dollars.  This will fund a breast cancer research grant in honor of Kelly Jo Dowd, a former Hooters server and manager who, a few years ago, lost her courageous battle with breast cancer.

So far July is shaping up to be an exciting month. We announced a collaboration with the NASCAR Foundation to award a grant to Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, FL. The grant will help Shands improve its research and care for their pediatric bone marrow patients. A side benefit is that I am learning to speak NASCAR, not bad for boy from New York City!

This grant brings the 2010 total of V Foundation pediatric research grants to $1 million. Looking forward to raising more money so we can do even more.

The summer season is here and for The V Foundation it means fundraising events and awarding research grants. It’s is always exciting and gives me such a feeling of hope when I meet the scientists and they share how the V Foundation grant will help them achieve their research goals

Last week we awarded designate grants to:

•Dr. Edwin Van Meir, Emory Winship Cancer Center $2590K for small molecule drug discovery

•Drs. William Janssen and Shari Pilon-Tomas, Moffitt Cancer Center $500K for neuroblastoma research

•Dr. Steven Zeitels, Massachusetts General Hospital $ 200K for Laryngeal cancer research