Give the Most Precious Gift to a Child: A Chance to Live
On March 15, 2008, Ski4e will hold their second annual fundraiser at Holiday Valley Resort in Ellicottville NY. Ski4e’s goal is to raise money to support pediatric liver disease and to promote organ donation. All funds raised from this event will benefit the following causes in their fight to save children’s lives:
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA): COTA exists to assist patients who require a life-saving organ, bone marrow, cord blood or stem cell transplant. They work with any patient who needs a transplant due to a genetic disease such as Cystic Fibrosis, and all patients 21 and younger for any disease or complication. COTA has assisted more than 850 families with fundraising to meet transplant-related expenses … things not covered by insurance - from almost every state and every economic situation.
Biliary Atresia Fund for the Cure (BAFC): BAFC’s primary goal is leveraging National Institutes of Health (NIH) government funded research with American Liver Foundation privately raised funds. They promote the study of Biliary Atresia among researchers and scientists and aim at raising 5.5 million for Biliary Atresia research over the next ten years. However, there is unlimited potential to do even more financially.
Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York, Presbyterian Center for Liver Disease: The Transplantation Institute's Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation is a comprehensive program dedicated to diagnosing and treating all forms of liver and billiary disease in adults and children. The Center is renowned for its seamless integration of medical, surgical, and radiological services.
Currently there are 414,901 individuals in the United States that are desperately in need of an organ transplant. Of these individuals, 32,069 are children under the age of eighteen, and 13,069 of them are babies and toddlers under the age of five, who without a transplant will not live to see their first day of Kindergarten. Only you can make a difference.
On June 22, 2001, Ethan Glaser of Buffalo, NY was born with Biliary Atresia, a rare disease of the liver and bile ducts that affects about 1 in 15,000 babies. While its cause is unknown, it is a life threatening illness that cannot be treated with medication, and nearly one-half of all infants who have this illness do not respond to earlier surgeries and require liver transplantation before age five. Eighty-five percent of the children who have this disease will require a liver transplant before the age of twenty. For Ethan, known as “E” by his friends and family, the first two years of his life were spent almost entirely in a hospital, until June 6, 2003, when his father, Chad, was Ethan’s live liver donor and gave Ethan the ultimate gift – the gift of life!
The truth is, however, that despite continuing advances in medicine and technology, the demand for organs is vastly greater than the number of organ donors, and the costs of a transplant and related expenses – travel, lost wages for family members, and drugs - are astronomical. Organ donation is about LIFE.
In March 2007, the Glaser family formed Ski4e and started their crusade to raise money to promote awareness for liver disease and organ donation. At their first Ski4e event at Holiday Valley, they raised over $20,000. Please help support Ski4e 2008!
All corporate sponsorship is 100% tax deductable. To learn about the corporate sponsorship levels available or to make a donation, please contact Chad Glaser at 716-568-2027. Remember, no amount given is too small. For details on the March 15th ski event, please visit
www.Ski4e.com.
“Living through a child needing a transplant is draining both emotionally and financially. Reach out today and make a difference.”
