We are excited to launch a new GBO fundraising focus on sponsoring a facility dog through the American Family Children’s Hospital’s Canine Health and Medical Pals Program. Currently, the two facility comfort dogs, Kiko and Cola, provide therapeutic support to patients during hospitalizations and visits. The GBO will support the expansion of this important program with a third dog to help ease anxiety and provide furry comfort to the patients and their families. We are very excited to partner with you on this goal! Check out Kiko’s Instagram post on her one year anniversary, https://www.instagram.com/p/CjS0I18jWqL/?hl=en. Definitely woof a watch!
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Thank you for your incredible support of the Greater Bucky Open benefitting the American Family Children’s Hospital and Bucky Badger student mascots. Our 2022 donation of $41,393 brings our overall total over $620k!
Once again our registration fees covered all expenses so every donation made directly benefitted our charitable mission: 93% supporting pediatric cancer research and the patient and family food program at the American Family Children’s Hospital and 7% supporting the Bucky Badger student mascot scholarship program. Pediatric Cancer Research: As you may remember, our GBO friend and superstar pediatric cancer researcher Dr. Christian Capitini leads a team providing an innovative anti-cancer therapy called CAR T, which involves genetically engineering your body’s killer cells to fight cancer. With GBO support, new types of CAR T have moved from the laboratory to clinical trials for both children and young adults with cancer. The American Family Children’s Hospital under Dr. Capitini’s leadership is a destination for children needing CAR T. In addition to helping 14 children with CAR T, Dr. Capitini hired a new faculty member from Stanford, Dr. Becky Richards, and plans to move forward with a national clinical trial testing CAR T for the first time in pediatric solid tumors. We know Bucky loves Dr. Richards too! Patient and Family Support Program: Since the beginning, GBO funds have provided family meals at the children’s hospital. This program allows parents the convenience and comfort of staying onsite with their patients. Meals continue to be delivered to patient rooms offering flexibility for families during a procedure or physical therapy sessions. Our 2022 GBO support covered lunches 5 days a week for parents and siblings for 10 weeks! GBO Family Lounge Enhancements: Happy to report that some of our fund will also be going to outfitting our Lounge with additional space to be more adolescent friendly with massage chairs, gaming systems, etc. The AFCH leadership team is extremely grateful for these new additions as it’s been a gap and need for a while. Bucky Badger Student Mascot Scholarship Program: As a former Bucky Badger student mascot, loyalty to the #1 mascot in the world is strong and the need for funding is known first-hand. To show our collective appreciation of Bucky, a small portion of the GBO funds raised provides a modest scholarship for the student mascots and will be credited at the bursar’s office. On, Wisconsin! GBO Toy Drive: we continue to provided smiles to patients thanks to your generosity with donating toys. Although we were still unable to host the Greater Bucky Open Family Fun Fest onsite at the hospital, the Child Life team sent us a picture of our 2022 toy delivery with this message: Our 2022 outing got off to another wonderful start featuring UW Women's Basketball Head Coach Marissa Moseley and our featured Patient Story, Abe Wilke! Check out the video! **turn on Close Captioning / subtitles 0:00-1:10 Introduction by Valerie Zibell 1:11-4:39 Featured Patient Story by Abe Wilke 4:40-9:08 Celebrity Speaker, Head Coach "Mo" - Marisa Moseley - "You Get To vs. You Got To" |