Golf and Hope

We had an amazing outing today for the foundation! People are so generous and giving and I'm just so touched and grateful.  Here is a copy of the speech I gave during dinner...granted I modified it a bit when I gave it "live", but in general this is the message I was "hoping" to covey.

Good Afternoon and thank you for attending our 3^rd Annual Michael G. Belz Foundation Golf Outing!

My name is Mary Belz, I’m a Board Member of the foundation and Michael was my husband. On behalf of the MGBF board and our families I would like to sincerely thank all of you for supporting our foundation and joining us today by attending this event. In 2010 we had 86 golfers, 2011 124 and this year 144! It’s just incredible to see the growth and support over the years, and not just with the outings but in all areas. Thank you!

One of the themes we’ve launched this year, you may have noticed is “got H.O.P.E.?” And what I’d like to do is just explain a bit about that. The word H.O.P.E. is actually derived from our mission and each letter of the acronym H.O.P.E. represents and element of our mission. We’ll try a little quiz here.

H is for…. Helping to live and celebrate life after diagnosis
O is for…  Offering emotional support
P is for…  Providing resources
And finally, E is for… Education that promotes a global awareness of research and treatments

We came up with H.O.P.E. upon reflecting back on Mike’s journey and how sometimes it was all we had to hold on to and keep going, to offer each other. After Mike died we wanted to extend that to other patients and families undergoing similar circumstances after a brain tumor/brain cancer diagnosis.

I once read this story about grief after Mike died that I wanted to share. But I think it can be interpreted in relation to hope, so that’s how I’m going to retell it. If someone is without hope, they may look outside on  a dark, cloudy day, when the clouds are covering the sun and think, “the sun isn’t shining” or “the sun isn’t out today” and think “ugh, what an ugly day”. But on the same day, in the same town, at the same time, somebody might be flying in an airplane. And as the plane climbs up and through the layers of the dark clouds, all of a sudden when they reach an elevation of 28 or 38,000 feet the sun appears. If you flown before you know this feeling, it pours in through the window, some people gasp at the beauty. I remember when I was little (and okay I still do it now) but I would take photos trying to capture just a glimpse of that moment. So you have the people in the plane admiring the beauty meanwhile the people below still believe the sun isn’t shining, but it is, they just can’t see it. Something has come between the people and the sun. I believe this is what hopelessness is like. We all know the clouds will pass, and the sun will shine again down below, but helping each other through such times is so important.

So the theme Got H.O.P.E.? is to not only bring awareness but is truly a question to be asked and pondered. And there’s a follow-up to it, if you have hope, give hope and that’s what we are all doing here today! Either if you golfed, volunteered, came for dinner, brought a friend…there’s so many ways. What you choose to do after today is up to you, but it can make a difference to somebody. You can continue to spread hope to others just by wearing the gray ribbon or wrist band or talking about the event… coming back next year, bringing a friend.

What I’d like to leave you with is a quote from Daniel Berrigan,  

"The gift we can offer others is so simple a thing as hope."

On behalf of the MGBF Board, our families thank you for coming out today and supporting us and to our volunteers.