Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from everyone at the DJD Fight On Foundation. It was a great, 2010 thanks to all your support and generous donations. This past year we held two 5K races, a Beef and Beer Benefit, a Biking event (thanks to a previous family we helped), and the annual golf tournament. Since last Christmas, the DJD FOundation and supporters have helped 7 families. The Foundation has now donated more than $40,000 in Derrick's memory to help families who are battling cancer. We hope that in 2011 we can continue to help those who are courageously battling this disease, and help them to ease the financial burden of a cancer diagnosis while keeping Derrick's spirit alive. A special thank you to all the businesses, individuals, and families, who have given so generously during the holiday season. Please check djdfighton.org for some pictures of Faith and Jeremy Bacon opening their gifts that were donated by some of you. It was wonderful meeting them face to face. Both Faith and Jeremy were so gratful for the support! I'd like to send a special thank you out to all the members of Board of the DJD Fight On Foundation, for their hard work throughout the past year. Thank you to the Morrissey family, the Summers family, Jim, Donna, and Marcy Dull, Casie Baker, Greta Brubker (our web master), Mike Gearhart, and all the committee members of the golf tournament. I would also like to especially thank everyone who has donated, volunteered, or supported the Foundation in any way this past year. Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

The DJD Fight On Foundation is wishing everyone a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season! We want to thank you for you generous and selfless giving in 2010. We couldn't have helped the families without all of you!!!! We look forward to a successful New Year, which hopefully give us the proviledge of continuing to help families battling cancer, in Derrick's honor! Thank you everyone who made charitable donations during the holiday season, and thank you to everyone who donated gifts for Jeremy and Faith Bacon. I will be delivering the gifts Christmas Eve. I will put pictures of the family on the website! Also, in recent news Curt Keiser signed up to join the National Bone Marrow Registry during our Lewisburg drive. He was just recently called as a potential match for a 6 year old boy! If you haven't signed up for the reigistry yet, I encourage you to give the gift of life by signing up. You can sign up online at www.marrow.org. If you have already joined the Reigstry, please remember to update your contact information if your phone number or address changes. You can do this online as well! Merry Christmas and a Happy Happy New Year to all the loyal followers of the DJD Fight On Foundation!

Shawn Belanger

First of all, I want to thank everyone who went out of their way to send me Christmas donations for Faith Bacon and her son!I will take pictures of the family when I drop off the gifts! Also, I wanted to post the letters from Shawn Belanger's family. Shawn is a 20 year old male with a rare form of rhabdomyosarcoma. He is currently receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC. He is expected to undergo treatment for approximately a year. Please check the website in the next few days for a picture of Shawn(djdfighton.org)! Thanks again for all your support and I hope everyone has a beautiful and very Merry Christmas!

Letter from Shawn's parents:

Thank you for your generous donation to Friends of Shawn Belanger. As Shawn continues in this fight of his life, your financial help allows him to continue with the very best treatment at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and helps our family manage the incredible costs involved. To you and all the supporters of Derrick's Foundation, we humbly thank you for your donation.

-Martha Ferris and Richard Belanger


Letter from Shawn's Aunt:

Thanks to you and the DJD Fight On Foundation for considering Shawn and helping him so generously with your donation. It seems indcredibly unfair that those burdened by this disease have to even think of the financial crisis it creates. Shawn's extended family and friends have made it our mission to help ease this burden, and donations like yours make a huge difference! I read through your website and was moved by Derrick's life and the great mission you have taken on because of it. God Bless you and all the supporters of DJD.

Many. many thanks,
Nancy Stiner Cometti

Please keep all our families in your prayers, especially those who are currently undergoing treatment. Also, Balke Laurelli a previous family just underwent a bone marrow transplant this week. Let's pray for a speedy recovery! Also, a Happy Birthday to Matt Lauffer ( a previous family we helped), he is 2+ years cancer free! Thanks again!

A Day of Rememberance...

Tomorrow, December 6th, marks the 2 year anniversary of Derrick's passing. Not a day goes by that that I or Derrick's family do not think of him, and miss him terribly. Now that it has been two years after the devastating loss of a remarkable husband, son, brother, and friend, I can look back and not focus completely on my anger and grief about Derrick being taken from us far too soon. I can now look back at the positive memories that I will carry with me for a lifetime. I once again can feel blessed. I feel truly blessed for the 5 years, I was able to spend with Derrick,just as I know all of you feel blessed for having the extreme priviledge of knowing one of the most caring, free- spirited, and loving people to ever grace this earth. I for one am a better person thanks to Derrick and the short time I got to spend with him. I will forever be grateful for the many life lessons and unconditional love he showed me in our 5 years together. Tomorrow, I will not look back with saddness, but with great joy about the positive impact Derrick has had and continues to have on my life and so many other's life. So many people's lives continue to be enriched thanks to Derrick. Derrick was loved by so many that people continue to support his Foundation to help families battling cancer. Thanks to Derrick, 12 families to date have been helped, with donatiosn nearly totalling $40,000! This is a true testament to the kind of person Derrick was, the kind of person that inspires other people to reach out and help others who are battling cancer.
For those of you who personally know Derrick and have read his blog posts, you know just how inspiring his words can be, so I'd like to leave you with a few messages that Derrick wrote in our daily devotional "What I learned from God Today".
-Make everyday Count. Focus on what matters. You can't be fake to God as you can be to other people.
- Everything on this earth is temporary, all the materal possessions are temporary.
-Small acts of duty and kindness throughout the day mean more to God than prayer.
- Being in God's family is the greatest gift of all.
- Life is about love. Relationships need to be first priority. You can make more money,but you can't make more time. The best way to show love is through time.
- Learn to be a servant. Servants often go unrecognized and don't do things for fame or to be seen, but for the glory of God.
- Got to win one more for Jesus should be the focus of my life in bringing one more soul to Heaven for Eternity.
- I should share my life lessons with others, and I should listen to the life lessons of others (mission accomplished Derrick as you continue to share your life lessons with all of us).

The last message I'd like to share is a question Derrick wrote... "When I stand before God on judgement day, what will he say about my life?" * I think we all know the answer to this question Derrick, and thank you for sharing your life with us.



SHMILY