November 2008 - Junior League of Minneapolis

Members
DIANA HAGEBOECK
SPREADING WINGS CONTINUED
Diana and Norm learned of the then little-known Children’s Cancer Research Fund
(CCRF) while Katie was being treated. In the parents’ lounge, every time a child died,
a hat was passed around to collect donations for CCRF in the child’s memory. When
Katie relapsed in the fall of 1979, she told her parents that she wanted the money she
had saved for a new bike to go to CCRF. Katie lost her battle with leukemia in
December 1979, and Diana and Norm honored their daughter’s request. And they
did much more. Over the next 28 years, with the help of friends, they would raise
over $100 million for pediatric cancer research.
With two goals in mind – raise money and create awareness for the cancer research
program – Diana gathered twelve friends, most of them Junior Leaguers, to plan a
benefit for the cause. Having no experience planning a large, high-profile event, Diana
was thankful for the support of many of her innovative friends from the Junior
League. Together, they organized the first annual Dawn of a Dream benefit concert,
raising more than $50,000 for CCRF. The event lit a fire in the community that
couldn’t be put out, and Diana found herself in the center of a grassroots volunteer
organization that is behind today’s CCRF.
In 1983, the Junior League expressed interest in cooperating with CCRF to develop
a project, and so began the Children’s Cancer Assistance, Resource and
Encouragement program (C.A.R.E). The project’s mission was to train volunteers to
support and encourage patients and their families. C.A.R.E was a successful
program, the first of its kind, and one that CCRF continues to support and today is
known as Care Partners.
Diana credits the Junior League for playing a significant role in the success of CCRF
and is extremely thankful for the skills she learned in the Junior League that helped
her find hidden talents at times when she most needed them. Her Junior League
friends have been volunteers and leaders for CCRF over the years, and Diana has
relied on many leaders in the League who have acted as mentors for her as CCRF has
grown. In Diana’s own words, CCRF “has been a total collaboration of Junior
League leadership, training, friendship and energy.”
Since 1980, a butterfly has been the Children’s Cancer Research Fund’s symbol of
hope, representing a child’s experiences while fighting cancer. It also represents the
organization’s small beginnings and tremendous impact – “furthering groundbreaking
research, training the pediatric cancer doctors and researchers of the future, and
treating children from across the globe with new therapies in their fight against
cancer.” Diana Hageboeck, along with her family and friends, have been instrumental
in spreading the wings of a cause that will continue to impact the lives of children
and their families around the world.
PARIS FOR RENT
Stunning 1BR Left Bank
apartment near Musee
d’Orsay available for
weekly rentals. Elegant,
serene, luminous,
elevator, sleeps four.
For photos and
information contact
Wendy Crowley
(Pasadena League) or email
davenportdad@earthlink.net.
NOVEMBER 3 RD
THURSDAY
Thursday, November 20
7 – 8:30 p.m. (social at 6:30 p.m.)
Bachman’s Lyndale Store
6010 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, 55419
There will be two 30-minute
seminars. Topics are “Wreaths &
Evergreens: How to Decorate Your
Mantle” and “Trimming a Tree”.
Please register for this event on our
website.
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