Vicki Pene – CEF’s volunteer Graphic Designer

We are so excited to share this with you. The Chris Elliott Fund has now become The Elliott Foundation! We are starting 2012 with an expanded vision, a new name, and a new look.

All of the rebranding and what we call our “capacity build out” project is designed to help us reach more brain tumor patients and caregivers and to take The Elliott Foundation (TEF) to a world-class level as a national resource for patient education and advocacy.

Many of you know that the National Brain Tumor Society (NBST) has transitioned their organization out of providing day-to-day patient support services in order to focus on funding research. The NBTS has asked us to “built out” our Patient Support Services Program so that 10s of thousands of patients and caregivers that have accessed NBTS for education, assistance, and guidance can now be served through The Elliott Foundation.

After 10 years, I am so proud to report that it was due to the reputation and work of the Chris Elliott Fund that NBTS recognized us as the one organization to take on the national task of reaching more brain cancer patients and caregivers with life-saving information and treatment.

The NBTS has setup a temporary phone line and resource while TEF takes the necessary time to build out our services. We are “full throttle” in this task and need your help. Here is what has to happen:

1. Hire our first full time Health Information Specialist (HIS), $65,000

2. Add a Development Director, $45,000

3. Add two more fulltime HIS staff this year to handle added patient services with a goal of serving over 1,000 patient inquiries and calls per month by the end of 2012

4. Hire a CEO as I transition into my role as President & Spokesperson for The Elliott Foundation

It’s a big “to-do” list, but absolutely necessary if we are to EndBrainCancer in our lifetime. Please join me with your support during this time of historic growth for The Elliott Foundation.

Many thanks to Vick Pene

Several years ago, we put out an SOS volunteer post for a professional graphic designer via VolunteerMatch.com.  We were so lucky to have Vicki Pene, an award-winning graphic artist, answer our needs. Vicki is the FAB graphic designer who created our original “EndBrainCancer” logo and who is the artist behind our new national logo as well.  Vicki also has a personal connection (or two) to brain cancer. Her website is www.visualitydesigns.com

To view/download our new logos, click here or here.

All the best,

Dellann Elliott,

President & CEO

The Chris Elliott Fund/The Elliott Foundation

www.ChrisElliottFund.org

• In April, the FDA approved NovoTTF device as a new treatment option for brain cancer.  CEF President Dellann Elliott testified before the FDA as a nationally recognized advocate for brain cancer patients. CEF received local and national media coverage.

• Swedish Health Services, the largest nonprofit health-care provider in the greater Seattle area, announced that they would be replicating the Integrated Patient Support model, developed by CEF, across their various institutes of health to better provide for patient needs and to integrate holistic care.

• More than 700 brain cancer patients at the Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment benefitted from CEF’s financial support of the Integrated Patient Support Program that includes a dedicated social worker, and access to caregiver and bereavement support groups.

• Bonneville Media Group, which includes 710 ESPN, KIRO 97.3 FM News Talk Radio, KTTH The Truth, and the Seattle Seahawks chose CEF as their Charity of the Month for July which included Public Service Announcements and media coverage of CEF.

• Sinclair Estate Vineyards created and launched an award winning SEV/CEF Chardonnay charity wine label to benefit CEF. To order and support the CEF, go to www.SinclairEstateVineyards.com.  Tell them CEF sent you!

• The National Brain Tumor Society selected the Chris Elliott Fund for their national 2011 Community Leadership Award as an important “national voice for brain cancer patients.”

• CEF moved into our new offices at 8575 Willows Road NE, Redmond, WA 98052. This means more working space and room for volunteers.  CEF’s mailing address will remain the same at 704 228th Ave. NE #254, Sammamish, WA  98074.

Thank you for contacting me with your support for funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  It is good to hear from you.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, I have been very supportive of funding for biomedical research through the NIH. In 1998, I joined several of my colleagues in setting a goal to double NIH funding within five years. I am pleased that we were able to meet that goal in fiscal year 2003.

Unfortunately, in the years after we doubled the funding, NIH received flat funding that did not allow it to keep up with previous gains.  However, Congress was able to halt this trend for Fiscal year 2009, when the NIH received over a 3 percent increase in funding, close to the rate of medical inflation.  This increase in funding continued through fiscal year 2010 with a 2.3 percent increase.  In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law on February 17, 2009, included $10 billion for health research and construction of NIH facilities.  This money allowed for more NIH-funded research at research facilities through the country.

As you know, President Obama released his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal on February 14, 2011. The Senate Budget Committee, of which I am a senior member, is currently drafting a Senate Budget Resolution that must then be passed by the Committee. This document will set guidelines for federal spending in fiscal year 2012 and over the next five years.  Additionally, as you may be aware, on April 5, 2011, the House of Representatives passed Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget without a single Democratic vote. The bill proposed $4.3 trillion in spending cuts over ten years. On May 25, this measure failed to get the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to proceed to consideration. I voted against this budget because I have serious concerns about the negative effects it would have on millions of Americans, including scaling back NIH funding levels to fiscal year 2008, resulting in a 5 percent decrease.

Ensuring that this funding is kept on track is critical. As a result of our efforts to double the NIH budget, NIH was able to advance into new areas of science and support far more promising research than it was ever able to before. Investing in the NIH will ensure that there are enough trained professionals ready to turn today’s research advances into tomorrow’s treatments, diagnostics, vaccines and cures. Every dollar invested in medical research can save money in health care costs and economic productivity. Please rest assured that as Congress works on fiscal year 2012 funding, I will continue to support efforts to preserve NIH funding.

Again, thank you for contacting me regarding this important issue. If you would like to know more about my work in the Senate, please feel free to sign up for my weekly updates at http://murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=GetEmailUpdates. Please keep in touch.
Sincerely,

Patty Murray
United States Senator

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