The Online Date Auction Has Begun!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Kevin A. Barnes

My Online Date Auction to benefit Team Challenge1 is now underway! The winning bidder will receive an all-expense paid evening on the town. In addition, every person2 who donates $30 or more during the Online Auction will receive a bottle of wine from Napa Valley.

The Online Date Auction runs until 5:00 PM CT on Friday, May 20, 2011. Additional details, complete rules and the link to bid are available on the Auction Page.

Final Update — May 20, 5:00 PM: The Date Auction now is over, and it wrapped up with an exciting (and unusual) photo finish. For the results, visit my Team Challenge donation page.

Thank you in advance for you generous support of Team Challenge!

Notes:

  1. Team Challenge is a half marathon training program that raises funds to combat and find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. [↩]
  2. Female or male [↩]
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The Coveted Cork Award

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Kevin A. Barnes

Recently I was hospitalized for yet another new (new to me, at least) Crohn’s-related side effect — in this case a nasty blood infection. Unlike most of my Crohn’s issues over the last several years, this wasn’t something I could simply rearrange my life around. I ended up spending five days in the hospital, followed by two weeks where every single day I am going to the hospital’s outpatient infusion clinic to receive IV antibiotics.1

The bottom line is that I’ve missed a chunk of work, as well as been completely out of training for the Napa to Sonoma half marathon. (I’m running the Napa to Sonoma race with Team Challenge in order to raise both awareness and research funds for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.) It will be a challenge to jump back into training and be ready for the half marathon by July 17, but after this recent setback I am more committed than ever to doing whatever it takes to wipe out these diseases.2  Read the rest of this entry →

Notes:

  1. My course of antibiotics should be completed in another week on May 21. [↩]
  2. To find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, we need your help. You can support my Team Challenge effort here. [↩]
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A Major Endeavour Begins

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Kevin A. Barnes

Tomorrow is the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and thanks to a little bit of good luck (and a lot of jumping without a net and hoping the universe will catch me), I’m here on the Space Coast in Florida and I’ll be one of the lucky few watching the launch from the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center.

For me, this experience has literally been 30 years in the making. I’ve always been a space exploration fan,1 but during the summer of 1977 I became a full-fledged NASA addict. In July of 1977, I had my second major surgery for Crohn’s disease and spent a chunk of that summer in recovery mode. One thing that kept me occupied during that recovery was reading and learning everything I could about the (then new) Shuttle program, plus watching the unpowered test flights and landings of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. When in April 1981 Columbia became the first shuttle launched into space, I made a promise to myself that I would get down to Florida to see a launch in person.

Flash forward three decades to 2011 and the Space Shuttles are being retired, with only two remaining flights — Endeavour this weekend and Atlantis on June 28. So if I was going to see a launch in person, it had be one of these two remaining flights.

Back in February when The Kennedy Space Center announced a lottery for tickets to view the Endeavour launch, I entered my name … which was actually picked. I immediately grabbed one of the viewing packages available only to the lottery winners. And despite delays in the Endeavour launch schedule, shifting work projects, various other twists of life and luck, and a road trip that landed me in the middle of the worst tornado outbreak in 40 years,2 I am here — seven miles from the gates of Kennedy Space Center — and tomorrow morning I will finally see a manned space launch.

Watch for lots of photos, stories and other updates following the launch and throughout the coming days. You also can follow my real-time thoughts on Twitter @KevinABarnes

Notes:

  1. I remember watching nearly every minute of coverage for all six Apollo moon landings on TV, even though I was under ten-years-old. [↩]
  2. I hope to also write about this experience, since it was one of the scariest weather moments of my life. [↩]
Posted in Crohn's Disease, Personal, Shorts, Space Exploration, The Future | Leave a comment

An open letter and request for help

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Kevin A. Barnes

Dear friends and family members,

I’m writing to you today because I have undertaken a major personal challenge and I need your help. I will complete the 13.1-mile Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon on July 17 as part of CCFA’s Team Challenge. This will be my fifth half marathon (I began running half marathons in San Antonio in 2008), but to paraphrase one of my teammates, “I would run around the world if it would cure Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.”

Crohn’s and colitis1 affect far too many people — over 1.4 million Americans at last count. And sadly, according to recent research, Wisconsin has the highest incidence in the world of Crohn’s disease among children.

I realize we are still in a tough economy, but the truth is that Crohn’s and colitis don’t take a break when times are tough. As just two examples:

  • There continue to be newly diagnosed children and teenagers who end up having their colon removed in emergency surgery.
  • And there continue to be people who’ve fought the disease for so long (and lost so much of the digestive system) that they now must receive life sustaining nutrients via a permanently implanted IV line.

But there is good news. Significant research progress has been made, leading to better treatments and moving us closer to finding the cure. Donations from friends like you have made — and continue to make — a real difference. CCFA is among the top rated charities (according to groups like the American Institute of Philanthropy, Charity Navigator, and others), with at least 80 cents from every dollar going to mission critical programs. So even a small donation makes a difference.

To Donate:

With your help, we will make a difference. As a Team Challenge participant, I’ve set a goal to raise $3,800 in donations for CCFA. Please help support me by giving whatever you can (no donation is too small!):

http://www.active.com/donate/napa11wisconsin/napa11KBarnes

Finally, please share/forward this link to anyone you know who might be interested. And thank you in advance for your support!

Kevin A. Barnes

Notes:

  1. If you aren’t familiar with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, you can learn more from CCFA: the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. And you can find news and other information about Crohn’s, including the story of my personal fight against this disease, elsewhere in this website. [↩]
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Star Trek Honor for Space Shuttle Discovery

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Kevin A. Barnes

At 3:23 am ET this morning (March 7, 2011), NASA gave a fitting tribute to the Space Shuttle Discovery as she wraps up her final mission. The Discovery astronauts were awoken with a very special version of the introduction to the original Star Trek TV series.

As a surprise to honor Discovery’s decades of hard work and exploration, NASA had William Shatner (Star Trek’s Captain Kirk) rerecord the introduction:

“Space. The final frontier. These have been the voyages of Space Shuttle Discovery. Her thirty year mission – To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before.”

It was a fitting and well-deserved honor for this workhorse of NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet.

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