From The President: UNBELIEVABLE! Simply unbelievable! Tee Up For Tots (TUFT) is entering its tenth year of fund raising. What was to have been a single-event charity golf tournament has now evolved into a non-profit/tax exempt corporation. Our fundraising continues year round as many other local and regional organizations have chosen TUFT as their charity of choice. Along with our sponsors and donors we work towards our mission, and take cancer research and helping families whose children are suffering from cancer very, very seriously. Again, it’s simply unbelievable! After our first event in 1999, (our first of nine sell outs!), Tee Up For Tots was named the #1 Corporate Volunteer Project of the Year by the Tucson Volunteer Center. That year, tournament funds allowed us to help bring Laser Scanning Cytometer Technology to Steele Children’s Research Center (SCRC). At that time, SCRC became one of four institutions west of the Mississippi to have this technology. In 2001, the Courtney Page Zillman Doctoral Fellowship program was founded. To date, 5 brilliant young scientists have joined the cancer research arena with our sixth, Collin LaCasse, currently under our wing. Additionally, a special research project totally funded by TUFT was initiated last summer at the SCRC. Research is ongoing, and it is our deepest hope that this research will produce tremendous results and spur clinical trials in the very near future. In 2002, the Courtney Page Zillman Research Laboratory in the SCRC was dedicated. For an immediate impact, we look to our Family Assistance/Hardship Programs. For nine years we have provided ‘kits’ to each family, and have assisted families in their transition to the “cancer family lifestyle”. We have provided financial aid, which varies from a tank of gas, to airfare and groceries, to as many families as we could support in past years. We are very proud to say, that in 2007, we did not have to turn down any requests forwarded to us by the Social Workers due to lack of funds. The Hematology, Oncology, Patients and Parents Program (HOPP) was conceived in 2007 by our very own April Lochhead. April now works closely with the third floor clinic at UMC to modernize, upgrade, or just plain make the clinic comfy for out-patient children and their parents who endure day long chemotherapy treatments and transfusions. The loss of my beloved sister, Donna Kay Zillman, to cancer on Christmas Eve last year was emotionally devastating to the Zillman family, her many dear friends, and to Tee Up For Tots. We all miss her so very much. I cannot express into words the pain that I feel. I will honor her memory by living on, for her, in the way that she would have wanted. I know what Donna would have said as the 10th Anniversary of TUFT approaches: “I’m with Mom, Dad and Courtney now, and we all want you and the extended TUFT family to make this THE most incredibly successful year ever. Carry Courtney’s Courage and our love among you, every second, and continue to make THE difference.” We extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our loyal sponsors, contributors, volunteers and supporters. We could not have done, or be able to do, any of this without you. Sincerely,
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