By Beth Foss, First Vice President of the CRF Board of Directors
I would like to take this opportunity to say “Thank you!” to everyone in our CRF family who helped make our 2010 CRF 10th Anniversary Conference in Seattle a huge success. Special thanks go out to our Conference Planning Committee chair Karen MacDonald and committee members Marie Bogan, Jeani Cunningham, David Tatro, and Stephanie Tucker, along with advisors Larry Hall and CRF board president H. Eric Hartman.
Thanks go out as well to the Oster family for co-sponsoring with CRF a great opening night reception; to Janet Rowley and Jeannie Cunningham, coordinators of the festive Saturday night silent auction that raised more than $3,000, along with all of our enthusiastic bidders; and to our younger CHMers for their efforts to raise awareness and funds for CHM research: CHMer Mike McCarthy and his best friend Aaron Bannasch (who also ran all the sound and media at the conference for us) produced an upbeat and truly inspiring documentary about how Mike lives with CHM. (If you would like to see this video online, point your browser to http://vimeo.com/13381042) And CHMer EJ Scott gave us plenty of laughs with his documentary on the fundraising victory he and his brother-in-law Albert Ging won as they biked across the US on behalf of CRF. What great efforts and testimonies these young men give our organization! Last but certainly not least, special thanks for our Sunday morning nondenominational worship service led by two of our very own CRF ordained clergy, Tom Vos and Ron Downs.
As with conferences in years past, we began our get-together by sharing many hugs and family updates. Our members traveled from as far away as Greece, France, Hawaii, and the four corners of the United States to be with us. All of us came with high hopes to hear good news and useful information about the latest CHM medical developments, education, and support services. We certainly were not disappointed!
