Edelman-Gardner Cancer Research Foundation

It is with deepest sadness that I pass on to our friends and supporters that George Edelman Jr, the founder and leader behind the Sally Edelman and Harry Gardner Cancer Research Foundation has passed.

There have been so many conversations of memories, words of respect, Thank Yous, and of course the funny stories that were shared with Cheryl and the rest of George’s family in the past few days.

There is an important part of a eulogy that I wrote for George that I think is worth repeating.

He was never the Grand Marshall of the parade, the citizen of the year, or won any awards; such as the ESL Jefferson award. Should he have??? I do believe he should have been all three. But he did things the way he wanted. He wasn’t for pomp and circumstance, he didn’t like accolades and didn’t ever to be about what he started. All he cared about was pouring $$$ into Cancer Research. He was very comfortable being behind the scenes. It wasn’t about him. He was a super hero to many!!

As a result of his commitment and your support, to date we have given the Wilmot Cancer Institute over $1,000,000 directly to Cancer Research. He was able to do this with your support.

Being the Grand Marshall or Citizen of the year doesn’t give you a better quality of life, it doesn’t help fund cutting edge research, and it doesn’t give someone else hope. We will never know how many lives his efforts and commitment have saved or improved. What we do know is that we have more hope now than ever with this beast of a disease.

In the last couple of weeks, he asked me to keep it going forward with the same mission. We have come to far to stop now. We will continue the journey until there is no reason to keep going.