Supporting the Jordan Fund

Check Recieved

2006-01-29T16:18:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Aly here just wanted to let you know that in December a check for $300 was given to the Jordan Fund to help children with special needs. Thank You for all of your support and donations, it was greatly appreciated by us and the Foundation. Just a quick Thank You to John for his great career in MLB, you will be missed by not only Red Sox fans but by all fans. THanks again to everyone involved, this was more successful than we thought.
~Aly

NEPA Article

2005-09-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

here is the text of the article that appeared on page 7 of the New England Press Association's publication, the Bullitin. You can also view the publication at:
http://www.nepa.org/Bulletin%20Archives/NEPA_sept05_web.pdf.(you have to type it in/copy and paste it in because it will not link for some reason).
you will need adobe acrobat reader to view the link.Also we have raised $285 for the Doundation and are actively researching other avenues to raise money. Thank You to everyone for taking time out to read the blog and donate money and donate ideas on how to raise awareness and money, it is appreciated! Also please keep texas in your prayers while they deal with Hurricane Rita, stay safe to all those reading this from Texas!
Globe intern's story
spurs action to help
Sox player's daughter
Two Massachusetts college students
have set up a Web site to help the
daughter of Boston Red Sox first baseman
John Olerud, who suffers from a
gene deletion disorder.
Justyna Jezierski and Alison Foley,
both graduates of Fontbonne Academy
in Milton, Mass., set up the site after
reading about 5-year-old Jordan Olerud
in a Boston Globe story written by
intern Adam Kilgore.
The site, which can be found at
www.theolderudproject.blogspot.com,
raises money for The Jordan Fund,
founded by the Oleruds in 2003.

UPDATE

2005-09-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all! We recieved copies of the program SportsPulse so as soon as Aly figures out how to put it up online she will post a link so you all can see the interview. Also, we are going to be in an article in the Bullitin, the New England Press Association's newsletter, so stay tuned for a link to that! We have raised $185 for the foundation so far and we are actively researching ways to raise more. Thank you to all who have donated so far, it means so much! Just a quick update on some ideas that have been given to us to help raise money:
Tshirts
bracelets
penny jars
fundraiser/auction
Thank you to everyone for their ideas, keep them comming!!!!!!

SportsPulse Tonight

2005-09-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

We just found out yesterday evening that the story Comcast's sports show, SportsPulse interviewed us for will be airing TONIGHT, September 8,2005 at 10pm on the Comcast channel CN8. In Boston its channel 3 but check your local listings!

Our hope is that after the interview is broadcasted, things will pick up again but in the meantime we a are researching additional avenues to get the word out about the foundation. Any suggestions are welcome, just leave them in the comments section or email us at soxfanscare@gmail.com.

Aly, John and Justyna

2005-09-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

This is from our meeting with John in the dugout on August 26,2005.
l-r: Aly, John and Justyna

Also, congrats to John for his 2 Home Run, Double (500th Career!), 6 RBI night tonight, September 1, 2005 against the Tampa Bay DevilRays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2005-08-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

We would like to wish Jordan Olerud a Happy 5th Birthday tomorrow, August 30,2005! Hope the day is a great one!

note: we will be posting the pictures and such from out meeting with John as soon as we get the pictures, but we do want to say thankyou to everyone who made the meeting possible, words can't describe how much it means to both of us. Also, we will let everyone know when to tune into the Comcast Channel to watch the segment they taped about the blog and the Jordan Fund. Stay Tuned! Please keep the residents of Louisian,Alabama and Mississippi in your prayers and visit Redcross.org to help them out any way you can.

News for August 22, 2005

2005-08-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

We have come up with a form that people can copy into any word processing program (Word, Works, Notepad..) and print, fill out and mail along with a donation to the Jordan Fund if they don't feel comfortable with paypal. We have received numerous messages of support and some donations so thank you to everyone! We will be interviewed by SportsPulse on Thursday for a story on our efforts so look for it next week on your comcast channel. They are going to interview us at Aly's house since that's where all the files are stored for the project and they also plan to interview John so we will definitely fill you all in when details become available. We just wanted to post the Pledge Form up and also let you know about the show. Thank you all again!

Pledge Form:

Pledge Sheet To the Jordan Fund:

By signing this sheet you can pledge whatever you would like and directly send it to the Jordan Fund at P.O. Box 606, Medina, WA 98039 instead of donating it through the PayPal account set up by The Olerud Project for whatever personal reasons if you choose to do so.

Name: ______________________________

Address: ______________________________

Phone: ______________________________

Amount: ______________________________

Signature: _____________________________

NEWS

2005-08-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Nick Cafardo did indeed mention the blog in his weekly colum this week in the Boston Globe. The link is

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2005/08/21/resources_a_good_sign_for_jays/?page=4

Also, a picture of the Olerud family was added to the 'Links' section and if you click the picture it will take you to the article that appeared in the Globe that inspired us to create this project.
Ever since Tom Caron posted Justyna's letter in his weekly mailbag

http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/caron/08_17_05/

visits to the site have sky rocketed and today we have had over 1800 views! We want to thank everyone who has donated so far and also for everyone's support for the project and the kind words we have recieved, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts and please keep mentioning the project to friends and family and keep passing the link on because anything helps!

Crazy 24 Hours

2005-08-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all! It has been a crazy 24 hours for the project since all of the media outlets we contacted have responded to us and the responses have been overwhelmingly positive! We wrote to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe and he said he would put a mention in his Sunday article. Justyna wrote into Tom Caron’s (TC) mailbag at NESN, he responded in his column, and the site tripled its hits so we are now up to over 1500 visits! Boston Dirt Dogs will be posting a link on their site and Peter Blute; an ex-congressman said he would talk about it on his morning show on WRKO. The Boston Red Sox also responded and gave us the address where we can contact John. We are still waiting for Jerry Remy to respond. We want to thank all who have donated thus far and we hope more people will do the same. Again, thank you to all who have helped us by spreading the word about the site and for all who have donated, words can’t describe how much it means to us, the Jordan Fund and to the many families this is all going to help.

Update

2005-07-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in updating but we've been busy spreading the word throughout the Boston area and Red Sox nation. We posted the site on many message boards and even got some direct links on other sites. Aly spoke to Chong from the Jordan Fund in late June and he agreed to answer many important questions for the people who read the blog. The q&a will be at the end of this post. Justyna has been busy writing letters to the Red Sox, Tom Caron of NESN, Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe and the Program Manager at sports radio station WEEI. Soon we hope to have more updates but here is Chong's q&a. Thanks for your patience and continued support.

Aly: How did the foundation start?
Chong: The Jordan Fund was founded by John & Kelly Olerud in 2003. Theirdaughter, Jordan, was born with complications in August 2000. Jordan has a chromosome disorder labeled tri-some 2p, 5p-. She had a very difficult time as a baby. John & Kelly experienced first hand what an enormous task it is to care for a child with special needs, and what a huge burden it can place on families. They realized how God had blessed them with a firm foundation of family and friends to help them through this difficult period. They also felt blessed with the financial means God had provided them. Therefore, John & Kelly wantedto reach out to help less fortunate families of children with special needs. They acted on this by creating the Jordan Fund.
A: Is it Non-Profit?
C: Yes. the Jordan Fund is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
A: Are Donations Tax Deductible?
C: Yes, due to our non-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service(IRS), donations are tax deductible.
A: What is the Foundation's main goal?
C: The Jordan Fund's mission is to provide support to special needs children and their families.
A: What initiatives/projects are you working on right now?
C: Among the projects we are working on include assisting families in these areas:- Remodeling of a home to accommodate a wheel chair bound girl with cerebral palsy.- Providing therapy for a boy with autism- Providing therapy and equipment for a boy with cardiomyopathy.
A: If people wish to donate on paypal after reading our site, how do you want them to notify you so they can get a receipt for tax purposes?
C: Please include their name and address so that we know where to send the tax deductible receipts.
Note:We have no experience with Paypal, therefore we don't know how well this will work. We would need to keep the donations separate (as opposed to a total sum coming from your efforts) or have the total broken down by individual donations so that we can send out the appropriate receipts.)
A:If people wish to send you a check, do you want them to notify you that they are doing this as part of our initiative?
C: We appreciate your interest in helping us. Therefore, absolute yes, please have them make a note that they are doing this as part of your initiative because the Jordan Fund would in turn like to inform you on the results of your efforts.

2005-06-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Weekend Update

2005-06-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on what has happened over the weekend. We posted threads on a few message boards and the responses have been very positive. We also emailed Dale Arnold at WEEI and told him about the project.

Aly called The Jordan Fund and is anxiously awaiting their call back so she can find out if the foundation is non profit and tax deductible as well as make sure the legal stuff is taken care of.

Justyna has been monitoring the posts and continuing to research other avenues of getting the word out to the public as well as formulating a list of who to contact about the project and where to contact them.The site was started Friday night and we have had 140 hits in only 2 ½days!

Thank you everyone and please donate and continue to spread theword about what we are doing, it is greatly appreciated not only by usbut by the families this will be helping.Below you will find a few links that we think are very important toread about people affected by genetic disorders as well as some morebasic information on chromosome deletion.

http://www.chromodisorder.org/support5.htm
http://www.humpath.com/article.php3?id_article=6453
http://health.yahoo.com/ency/healthwise/nord990#nord990-disorder-subdivisions

-Aly and Justyna

More Info on Chromosone Disorders/ Jordan's Disorder

2005-06-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

If you'd like more information, check this site out:http://www.chromodisorder.org/intro.htm.This site was very helpful in explaining in mostly English what exactly occurs to cause such disorders and unfortunately they dont know why it happens and there is no cure for it as of now. It is run by an outreach program that helps families dealing with every type of chomosome disorders. The site has pictures of normal chromosomes and abnormal ones as well as keys on what the letters and symbols stand for.

Jordan has a syndrome called trisomy 2p, 5p-. This means she has an extra second chromosome and is missing part of her fifth chromosome.This has left her with multiple birth defects and had greatly impared most of her bodily functions. I tried Google and Yahoo and could not find any other information on this rare disorder. If anyone has any information on it, it is greatly appreciated, please email us at soxfanscare@gmail.com. Hopefuly there will be more information soon on the disorder in terms we can all understand.

Aly & Justyna

Welcome

2005-06-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!You're probably wondering how this project came about so here is the story. It started June 24, 2005, after both of us read the article in the Boston Globe by Adam Kilgore entitled "Growing Family".We were so moved that we chatted over the course of 8 hours on what wecould do.
We decided that we were going to start a blog to make people aware of all the issues surrounding Jordan's disorder. We also decided that wecan help by donating to the Jordan Fund out in Washington State, where Jordan was born and where her father, Red Sox 1st baseman, John Olerud played for many seasons.
We then agreed to start a discussion board so others interested in thecause could chat and get to know each other and post words of encouragement to the Olerud's. People can also chat about the Red Sox if they so wish.
The third part of this endeavor was to create a paypal site so that anyone who would like to, could donate as much as they would like tothe foundation via this blog. This amount will be directly transferred to the fund and John Olerud will be presented by the two of us with a ceremonial check sometime in September.
We also decided to put our public relations training to work and are going to contact media outlets to draw support and media attention for the cause because it is much more rare than any other disease or disorder known to doctors. We encourage you all to donate and to stay tuned to this site for updates and information as it becomes available. We appreciate your generosity and kindess and also encourage you to read the above article and familiarize yourselves with the reasoning behind this endeavor.

-Aly & Justyna