Introduction...

Welcome everybody,

I'm a huge sports fan, and as such, I spend a lot of my time watching ESPN. Throughout the years I have seen Jimmy Valvano's ESPY speech a handful of times. For the uninitiated, Jimmy V was the head basketball coach for NC State (1983 NCAA Champs) and died of cancer in April of 1993. The Jimmy V Foundation was set up following his passing, and has been a leading "charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer." "The foundation seeks to make a difference by generating broad-based support for cancer research and by creating an urgent awareness among all Americans of the importance of the war against cancer. The V Foundation performs these dual roles through advocacy, education, fundraising, and philanthropy. Its motto is 'Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.'" (JimmyV.org)

While Jimmy V is surely not the only person to be affected by the disease, I was always touched by his case. Jimmy V experienced a roller coaster ride in his last few months on this Earth and his words and actions have always struck a chord with me (I will include his speech below). ESPN has recently begun using their worldwide reach to reach out and try and raise awareness (and money) for cancer research. Most people believe that their small contributions can't help, however, I have become to feel that is not the case. While listening to the Mike and Mike morning radio show on ESPN 1050am, I began to feel that any dollar could make the difference.

Lately, I've begun working with a new start-up company called Sportvantage. At Sportvantage my main tasks include writing articles and creating/moderating our interactive online games. One of my pet projects is my College Pick'em (in a nutshell: I selected 1 major game from each conference plus four other big games and chose the winners of all the games before the season).

I've always wanted to donate to a worthy cause like the Jimmy V Foundation, but I felt I never had the right motivation. Somewhere along the way it dawned on me, I cold combine my College Pick'em and my desire to donate. With every correct selection, I will donate $1 at the end of the season.

I urge you to comment on this if you have been impacted by cancer, or if you support what I'm doing. Also, if anybody would like to match my donation, I would gladly add your pledge to mine and showcase your charity on this site.

In future posts I will introduce more background information about myself and my motivations but I don't want to bore you right out of the gate. So, I will leave you with the words of Jimmy Valvano from his 1993 ESPY Speech:

"I'm a very emotional and passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special...It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it...I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality....I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."

[I have edited out portions of the speech, to read the entire speech please visit: http://jimmyv.org/rememberingjim/espy.cfm]