April 5th

Yesterday Bob, Jake, Jeanne and I attended the "You're Skin is In" teen forum in Boston put on by the Melanoma Foundation of N.E. and hosted by Kelli Pedroia. It was an unbelievable event. About 46 high school students who had previously committed to becoming ambassadors for their schools, attended. They would bring the information and knowledge that they received at yesterday's forum back to their peers and community to spread the word about sun safety and the dangers of melanoma. There were three young people who were surviviors (Kelli included) that began the program by telling their stories. One young woman, Meghan Rothchild, even had a powerpoint presentation with pictures of herself showing the effects that melanoma had on her body. Pretty scary stuff. The room was filled with high school students mesmorized by these speakers. Then Jacob got up and read a speech that he had written on how melanoma had affected his life. His tender words about the struggle that his sister had gone through and the pain of living through it with her were so powerful. He had a hard time getting through the speech, but he did it and we were so proud of him.

The day continued with the large group breaking into smaller groups and discussing personal and community goals and how to go about bringing these important messages home to their communities and spread the warning. At the end of the day, the whole group encircled and one by one each person told what their favorite part of the day was. Mine was seeing all these young people coming together for no other reason but to make the committment to help others and be proactive on such an important issue. But the best part of it was how many of these students said that the best part of their day was hearing Jacob's story. They were so impressed by his speaking and what he said. Everyone thanked us for coming and said it would have been a different day if the Kohl's hadn't been there!!! My God, I can't even begin to tell you what this meant to us. I know Glenna was smiling down on all of us and was so happy to see her work continuing.

We followed this up with a beer at Game On, next door, and then back to the cape for mexican food and margueritas with family and friends. What a perfect birthday.