by Joanne O'Connell
3/29/2014

The Timothy O'Connell Foundation is pleased to announce that its Second Annual Orange Appeal, to be held April 5, 2014, has sold out.   Through the support of the 200 guests who attended last year's inaugural event-and, of course, the incredible kindness of the donors of auction items and the chefs, purveyors and wine and beer sponsors who donated all of the wonderful food and drink for last year's festivities-the Foundation raised more than $30,000.  Again this year, all of the food and beverages have been donated to the Foundation by guest chefs, purveyors and wine and beer sponsors, and all of the auction items that guests will bid upon have been donated.  As a result of such amazing generosity, the Foundation hopes to match or beat the amount of money raised last year.

The Trustees of the Foundation also report that in early March, the Foundation delivered a $25,000 check to The Timothy O'Connell Memorial Fund for the Study of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and C-KIT and FLT3 Mutant AML Cells, which was established at the University of Minnesota Medical School that same month.  Joanne O'Connell notes:  "We are so happy to be supporting the good works of Dr. Peter Gordon and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota.  Their clinical/ translational project is focused on the possibility that leukemia cell extrinsic factors within the extracellular environment can contribute to leukemia development, maintenance and response to therapy.  Dr. Gordon was one of Tim's fellows at Children's Hospital Boston/ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and he recently shared with us that his research and clinical interests, including this particular project, were inspired by Timmy and the FLT3 trial that Dr. Gordon and Tim's other doctors used in their attempts to heal Tim." 

For more information about The Timothy O'Connell Foundation, or to make a donation in support of the Foundation's Boston Marathon 2014 team, go to www.timsteam.org