Week Six

-One thing I want the audience to focus on is the importance to help out good causes. Cancer research is a good cause because it affects a lot of people.

-The other thing I want the audience to focus on is how much our group got accomplished. We always hear things like "one person can make a difference", but you never really know how much of a difference you can make until you start helping.

-The last thing I want the audience to focus on how our group focused on a specific thing. Yes, we donated money to cancer research in general, but we are focusing on pediatric oncology patients. We are wanting to make their a lot better by donating bracelets. 

They Say I Say

One Pager

Most people think that any organization needs money to carry out its mission. They say that the money comes from donations by people and businesses. People think that businesses donate a lot of money to foundations because they want to help out different communities and it gives the company a better reputation. They also think that local and corporate businesses donate around the same amount of money to a given organization.

                However, Ken Stern, the author of the article “Why don’t corporations give to charity”, says that the amount that businesses have been donating has decreased over time. He states that “Over the past 30 years, corporate contributions to charities in the U.S. … have fallen precipitously, from a high of 2.1 percent at its peak in 1986 to just around 0.8 percent in 2012” (Stern). By this statement he is showing that over 26 years the amount that corporations have been donating has fallen 1.3 percent. Stern says that the people do not notice this difference because the businesses are donating a sum of money to these organizations. To the general population that sum seems like a lot of money, but in reality most are donating far less than the average percentage that should be given. Stern believes that businesses should invest in their communities because they are not only viewed on their products and stocks are doing. But not everyone thinks this way. Stern wrote about “the old Chicago economist Milton Friedman … argued that ‘corporate social responsibility was a simple taking, without authorization or business purpose, of the money of the company, shareholders, and customers … it bordered on fraud’” (Stern). Stern acknowledges that this is a view that most businesses but he thinks that they need “to accept more of the basic responsibilities of citizens” (Stern).

            Recently I have started an organization called High Schoolers Against Cancer with fellow classmates. We have been emailing and calling different businesses. Some have responded but only one local business was generous enough to donate a sum of money. We been in touch with both local and corporate businesses in Cedar Rapids, but the responses have been roughly the same. They say that we do not have enough experience, they do not donate to school organizations, or that they are no longer donating to any charities. From my experience so far I think that businesses (both local and corporate) do not donate as much money as we think. I say that businesses need to be very clear on the type of organization that they are willing to fund on their donations page on their website. I think that businesses should be required to let the communities know how much percentage of their pre-tax profits are going to organizations. I think that the communities need to know this information because then we will know if they are donating below or at average. I know that not all businesses are concerned with their own profits and are not willing to help out their communities. But I also know that the majority of businesses are less will to help out. I hope that as I continue looking for donors I will have better luck, but I have contacted most of the businesses I know in the community and have gotten a lot of rejection emails. I say that businesses could be donating some money to organizations but not nearly the amount that they should. 

Week Five

This past weekend our group was supposed to gain some field experience or find a mentor. We already had a mentor, Mr. Mallicoat. We have been keeping him updated on our project and what we have been doing. So for our field experience we sent an email to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospitals. We let them know about what a 20 time project is. Then we explained what we chose to do for our project and how it affects them. Then we asked if we could interact with the patients when we hand out the bracelets and the inspirational quotes because we feel like it would be more personal that way. We are still waiting for a response from the University, but if they don’t respond by tonight we will call them tomorrow. We had a new problem though, what if the University says we cannot interact with the patients? This hasn’t changed how we feel about the project and what we want to do. We decided that if they said no, we will try and persuade them. We will ask about getting parent consent to interact with the patients, but hopefully the University says yes to our project. The response to this email would be included our TED talk (if we get a response) because it decides what direction our project goes.

Week Four

Tayler, Calysta, and I plan on continuing our 20 time project. We have made a lot of bracelets already and we have had a lot of help. Thanks to Ella Popenhagen we have the help of the whole Kennedy student government. They have made a lot of bracelets for us already and are continuing to help us. We have sent multiple emails to local businesses to see if they will be willing to donate any money for our cause so that we can donate as much money as possible to the University. The children's hospital in Iowa City recently moved buildings and are very busy in the changing process. We have an email written to them but we have not sent them yet because we were giving them time to settle in their new building. But now we are going to send them the email soon and wait for their response. For our one minute video we plan on being in the video and talking about what our project is and what we have done. We have not completely figured out what our hook is yet.

One Pager

Most people say that cancer research is very important so our society can understand more about different types of cancer. They think it is necessary and that everyone should do their part to donate money to the different foundations. They believe that the money being donated to the cause is being allocated in the best way possible. This will give all types of cancer research some money. People assume that the money they are donating are being distributed so that the most prevalent cancers get the most money. They never questioned how the money is being distributed. People have their own ideas about what is happening in the field of cancer research. However, that does not mean that what they think is actually the truth.

Author Dennis Thompson agrees that cancer research is important, in his article “Cancer Research: Where the Funding Goes” he writes about where the money is actually going. In his article, he displayed the ten most common types of cancer and then the ten cancers that are getting the most research money. While some types of cancers appeared on both lists, most of them are different. This shows that the money is not going to the most common cancers.

Then he goes through the process of why money is allocated in a certain way. One way to determine how much money that type of cancer gets is “Whether a non-profit group has been formed to support a certain cancer” (Thompson). Usually this is where the research gets most of its money, because that organization will be the one to go out and ask for donations on behalf of the type of cancer. Another thing that goes into the distribution is “Whether the scientific groundwork has been established” (Thompson). This means that there was previously some studies done that can lead to other studies and more progress. If there wasn’t any progress then it can be really hard for them to get money from the government and therefore researchers avoid those types of cancers. Another thing that goes into the distribution of money for cancer research is “Whether research into the cancer can provide widespread scientific rewards” (Thompson). So if there is a chance that the scientists can get recognized for their efforts then more scientist will research the type of cancer. The final thing that goes into the distribution is “Whether there is money to be made” (Thompson). This means if the innovation or studies can bring big advances in the field. Thompson found out that the money distribution is mostly based on the how much money the research will bring to the foundation or hospital.

After reading this article I was enraged. I was one of the people who thought that the money was being distributed in a way to help all the patients. But know I understand that the patients’ lives aren’t even a factor in deciding the allocation for cancer research. I think that money should be given to the cancer types that are rare and don’t have previous studies because we need to find out more about these cancers and the amount of research into these types should not be based on how much money they are getting. I think that they should value human life over a paycheck or an award. I think that the way it is being distributed right now is very selfish. The scientists only care about what they are getting out of their research. I think that people should be aware of how their money is actually going into cancer research. There are many types of cancer research. It could be a scientist in a lab conducting experiments or performing clinical trials. I understand that it’s hard to decide where the money goes. I think there better way to decide than we have right now. Cancer is so common these days that every type of cancer needs funding. I think that we need to stop thinking about the pay check that we will receive and start caring about the people who lose their lives every day to this disease. I strongly believe that cancer research is very important and every type of cancer needs to be researched until we find a cure.

Week Three

I believe that for our 20 time project, even though we made a lot of progress we still have a long way to go. One part of our project is to raise money to donate to cancer research at the University of Iowa. We decided to do a bake sale at school, but we also know that there are some regulations to be met. So we went a talked to Mr. Kline. We told him about our project and asked him if it was ok if we sold baked goods at school. And he said it was ok as long as we did not sell goods around breakfast or lunch time. But we also know that we can only raise so much money selling baked goods to students. So we decided that we were going to contact local business and ask them if they can donate some money. We wrote a basic email template to send to the businesses. We decided to contact AirFX, Parlor City, and Rockwell Collins. And for the second part of our project we are going to make bracelets for patients in the Pediatric Oncology department. We decided that we are going to go on the announcements and ask people to us and also Tayler and I are in the musical and there are a lot of times when we have down time and we can have other performers help us make the bracelets.

Checking in

Anjali:

Sounds like you are ready to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, I am not able to read you text for the questions. You will want to either change your display to something lighter or your text to something lighter. Let me know once you've changed it so I can give you feedback! The idea of enlisting the help of others is a terrific idea. Tell me more about your mentor.