Flat Richard at the Relay For Life of Tacoma

This weekend my wife is at the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Relay For Life held in Tacoma, Washington - The birthplace of Relay For Life.   She is a member of Team Relay Nation, which is made up of Heroes of Hope from across the United States and the world.  As a Hero of Hope she has spoken all across the state of Arkansas including the steps of the Capitol in Little Rock.  (You can hear her speech at the Capitol here.)

Although I really wanted to be able to experience the Relay Celebration in Tacoma our finances made it impossible.  I was feeling sorry for myself, but was cheered up when my wife took me to the Relay in 2D form.

Apparently Flat Richard made lots of friends at Relay.  He had his picture taken with Shannon. She lost her battle with cancer on Memorial Day 2014. She had already signed up for the last lap. She made that lap with the help of her friends.  These guys walked 14 miles from the coast carrying her to Relay.  Now that's the Relay spirit!

Flat Richard also made friends with a dance team of little girls from the Samoa Team who danced at Relay For Life.

He enjoyed getting to spend time with family.

It was awesome to get to experience one of the largest Relays ever at the birthplace of Relay.

I was able to actually experience some of the Relay because they had a live internet feed.  I was able to see Flat Richard circle the track, and see him with Team Relay Nation.

Flat Richard experienced this 24 hour Relay and was on the track for the final lap.

Flat Richard was at Relay the whole time. Always wanting to be helpful, he even helped get the last wagon load of stuff to the car.

The Relay For Life of Tacoma was very successful, raising over 530,000 dollars.  If you aren't involved in Relay For Life, find a Relay near you and get involved.  There are over 5,200 Relays in the U.S and over 600 Relay For Life events to support cancer organizations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.  To find a Relay For Life event near you click here.

D is for Duck Dynasty

The TV show, Duck Dynasty, follows a Louisiana  family living the American dream as they operate a thriving duck call while staying true to their family values.  Over the years I have been very strict about not viewing "reality" TV.  The idea that there was any kind of reality in these shows seemed far-fetched.  Over the last year while I was "not watching" reality TV, I kept hearing about a show that people were crazy about; Duck Dynasty.  Last year my wife gave her Hero of Hope speech in Sheridan, Arkansas at a Relay For Life Celebrity Waiter Event.  The event ended with a live auction.  We were amazed when an autographed duck call was sold for 850.00.  We later found out that it was a Duck Commander duck call from the Duck Dynasty TV show.

The show is filmed in West Monroe, Louisiana just 70 miles from where my daughter and her family live.  My son-in-law likes to hunt ducks.  I decided that I really should see what all the fuss was about. Once I watched Duck Dynasty I was hooked.  The characters remind me of people I know here in Western Arkansas.  They are real rednecks, and I know real rednecks when I see them.  My young granddaughters refer to the show as The Rednecks, as in "we want to watch The Rednecks".

Willie Robertson is the CEO of Duck Commander. As the only one with the business degree, he took the company from a living room operation to a premiere destination for all things outdoors. He says he honed his skills as a salesman by selling his freshly caught fish at the market with his mom as a young boy. Even then he was always working to negotiate the best price. While he says “being a redneck millionaire has its perks,” including buying new trucks, gadgets and swanky suits, working with kin can be a headache.

Phil Robertson is the patriarch of the family.  He is a living legend in Louisiana and is better known by his alias; the Duck Commander. He played first-string quarterback ahead of football star Terry Bradshaw at Louisiana Tech University in the ’60s. They were both drafted into the NFL but Phil turned it down because it interfered with duck season. Instead he stayed in Louisiana, married his high school sweetheart, Miss Kay, built a house down by the river and together they raised four sons. His love for the outdoors lead him to create the Duck Commander® Duck Call in 1973, which has gone on to become the most trusted duck whistle ever conceived. Duck hunting is so important to Phil that he follows a strict routine of no showering, no shaving, and no clothes washing of any kind during the ten-week season to ensure a bountiful haul.

Jase Robertson is Willie’s brother and his polar opposite. While Willie enjoys making deals behind the desk, Jase would much rather call the swamp his office. But he knows he’s gotta earn his keep, so Jase’s job within the company is to fabricate the duck calls that have made Duck Commander famous. When pressed, Jase can churn out a thousand new calls in a flash, but he likes to take his time so that Willie doesn’t expect the same performance every day. Jase has more important things than work on his mind, namely, duck hunting. Jase’s motto is “Only three things matter: God, then family, then ducks.”

Si Robertson is my favorite on the show.  He is Phil’s brother, best friend, and partner in crime. He has a very specific job in the workshop, fashioning the reeds that are inserted in every patented duck call. It’s a pretty easy job, made needlessly difficult by the fact that Si can never seem to stay on task. The Vietnam vet will often share his war stories with the guys, which usually gets the crew behind schedule, much to Willie’s dismay. Si’s most famous story is that while serving overseas, his mother sent him a blue mug. Thirty years later it’s still hanging from his back pocket and he continues to only drink from this cup, every day.

Kay Robertson is the revered matriarch of the family. What she says goes. She was 16 when she married Phil and since then she’s been keeping him and the boys from spending too much time in the woods, bringing them back to civilization each night with a home cooked meal. Kay believes her cooking talents are a gift which she must share, so she often ends up feeding all of the family and most of the neighborhood. Her most famous dishes are banana pudding, fried deer steak, crawfish pie, and sticky frog legs.

If you haven't seen Duck Dynasty, give it a chance. I highly recommend it.

Regina Lawry - Hero of Hope

In the fall of 2011 my wife, Regina, was chosen to represent the American Cancer Society as the Mid-South Division's first Hero of Hope in the caregiver category.  This is the speech that she has given in over 15 locations during the past year including the steps of the State Capitol.

I’m Regina Lawry, from Mena, Arkansas.  I’m a caregiver and I’m 1 out of 7.

I’m the only one in my immediate family that has never had a cancer diagnosis.

When I was a little girl in the early 60’s I went out collecting money for ACS with my mother.  At that time the ACS would send out envelopes and ask people to take them around their neighborhoods.  I can remember asking her why we were doing it and she would tell me, “You never know who it might help.”

In 1975 she was diagnosed with leukemia.  In the 70’s leukemia was a death sentence.  There was no treatment. 

She would get so weak.  I remember her coming to my house one day and she was too weak to even open the screen door.  It was as if mom’s blood would just disappear.  

At that time the only thing they could do for her was to give her platelets or whole blood.  They were giving her several units of whole blood and or platelet every week. 

It was the ACS that developed apheresis (the technology to separate the platelets from the whole blood).  This technology is used in many other medical applications also.       

At that time the family was responsible for replacing the blood that was used for her.  We all donated and were always scrambling to find other donors.  The Local ACS office donated over 100 units in her name.  I’m not saying that this is a service that is provided by ACS.  It’s just how much they care.

The doctors decided to remove her spleen and hopefully stop the loss of blood.  While she was in the hospital they asked her to participate in a bone marrow study.  They were studying the progression of the disease.  She was told that it would not benefit her, but would hopefully help others later on. 

They told her that it was painful.  It was done with a local and they had to drill into the hip bone and remove the marrow.  We tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted that she would do it.  She said, “You never know who this might help.”  In December of 1976 she lost her battle with cancer.

In the summer of 1996 (20 years later) a bone marrow transplant saved my sister Lenora’s life.  In February of that year she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. 

I took care of her 6 weeks during her transplant.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done.  As a caregiver you are completely exhausted all of the time and you are watching someone you love go through something so difficult. My brother Duane was her stem cell donor.

ACS is still funding platelet and stem cell research.  The ACS does NOT fund embryonic stem cell research.  I repeat the ACS does NOT fund embryonic stem cell research.  That was important to me.

A few years later my sister Roberta was diagnosed with bi-lateral breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy along with chemotherapy.  She is still cancer free. 

Not long afterwards my sister Bunny was diagnosed with breast cancer and chose to have a double mastectomy.  It was caught early and no further treatments were required. 

After Roberta’s treatments and recovery she became involved in Relay for Life in Enumclaw, Washington.  She invited all of us to come to Enumclaw and support her in the Relay.  We all went, because that’s the kind of family we are and we wanted to help her through her healing process.

I cannot tell you what it meant to me when I watched my siblings walk arm and arm around that track in the survivor lap.  Then when I saw my mother and my father’s luminary bags during the luminary ceremony I knew it was something that I had to be a part of. 

I returned to Enumclaw for a few years for Relay.  Then one day I got a luminary form in my bank statement.  They were having a Relay in Polk County.  I called the number on the form, signed up a team, raised $7000 and have been the chairman of the Polk County Relay for 5 years. 

Not too long ago on Facebook I saw that my cousin Michael was diagnosed with leukemia and was getting ready to undergo a bone marrow transplant.  I called him and we talked about my mother and what she had done.  We cried and we laughed.  36 years later bone marrow and stem cell research is still saving lives. 

The money that is raised helps long term.  We may not see the results today but ACS researchers save thousands and thousands of lives.  I know, because I’ve seen it first hand through things like Blood apheresis, bone marrow studies, stem cell research and various drugs and chemotherapies. 

So why do I Relay?  It’s my legacy.  I want my grand-children to know what my mother did for love.  She would have endured it all for a stranger, but ended up doing it for those she loved.  I want there to be treatments if they ever need them. 

I’m Regina Lawry and I Relay BIG in Polk County, Arkansas.