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STARS 4 Baby Reesa

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Skip Schumaker – Champion in more than 1 sense…

You probably do not know Sean, Jamie, and Reesa Stutzman.  I believe it even less probable that you have heard of Krabbe Leukodystrophy.  Fortunately, Skip Schumaker knows both the family and a little about Krabbe Leukodystrophy.  Even more importantly, Skip has stepped up in a big way to champion the cause of Baby Reesa who has this rare, inherited degenerative disorder that affects the central and peripheral nervous systems.  As you may already have guessed, this disorder has no cure.  Krabbe Leukodystrophy typically claims the life of the child before age 2.

Knowing only that piece of information is enough to send chills down the spine of this father.  To watch your child die in any manner certainly must be one of the cruelest sights a human being can witness.  To watch your child slowly and gradually lose one motor function after another must be heart wrenching.  People who chance has cruelly selected to endure such a thing deserve some kind of retribution.  If nothing else, parents who go through what the Stutzman family is going through should have at least a glimmer of hope.  If not for their own child, then maybe that hope might be realized somehow for another child somewhere in the world in another time.

As though to add insult to injury, the treatments required to keep a child with Krabbe Leukodystrophy alive as long as possible can create a gaping financial hole.  Start at approximately $70,000 and then work your way up in order to estimate the total cost of treatment which does not include sleepless nights and long days as care providers.  Imagine opening up a hospital bill for a treatment that was both necessary and irrelevant to the final outcome.  “Staggering” might be apropos.  In the vernacular I reserve for only the worst of times, a lot of 4 letter words come to my mind.  Maybe that is why I have so much respect for the Stutzmans.  Sean Stutzman speaks in glowing terms of both Skip Schumaker and the wonderful members of Cardinal Nation that the family met during Mike Matheny‘s Catch 22 charity golf tournament.  For someone facing such a grim reality, Sean puts on an incredibly brave face that most surely must mask a sadness which knows no limits.

Despite that sadness, Sean was quick to credit his friend of nearly 2 decades, Skip Schumaker, with profuse praise for Skip’s willingness to step up to the charity plate.  Perhaps you caught a bit on the FoxSports Midwest pre-game several days ago when Skip spoke about his upcoming charity event, “STARS 4 Baby Reesa”.  Skip just seemed to have an edge to his voice that betrayed his demeanor.  He spoke passionately about the event and the cause.  It was the tone of Skip’s voice that stuck with me for several days.  I finally broke down and asked myself “What can I do to help?”  I reached out to the Stutzman family and offered to promote the event.  Sean’s response was overwhelmingly positive, and I immediately became both a fan and supporter of the family.  After taking the time to read this, I’m hoping that you will too.  Here are the details of the charity event…

 

STARS 4 Baby Reesa

Tickets for the event go on sale July 16th at 8 am.  In order to purchase tickets, please call 636-978-0461 or 636-980-3740.  Each purchaser is limited to purchasing 4 admission tickets along with 1 autograph ticket of each current Cardinal with admission ticket purchase.  Basically, it costs you just $10 to get in the door.  Some autographs require an additional autograph ticket and some do not.

Here is the information regarding who will be there and the price for each autograph ticket.

5:00 – 6:00pm
Matt Holliday ($30), Skip Schumaker ($30), Adam Wainwright ($30), Jack Clark ($15), Al Hrabosky ($15)

6:00 – 7:00pm-
Lance Berkman ($30), David Freese ($30), Jon Jay ($30), Mike Jones ($15), Chris Duncan ($15)

Others to be announced…

Free With Admission Ticket-
Jason Simontacchi, John Costello, Mike Zuke, Terry Yake, Glenn Brummer, Jamie Rivers, Chuck Diering, Reed Low, Bruce Racine, Neil Fiala, and Bruse Affleck
V.I.P Package:
4 admission tickets, guaranteed 1 autograph of all athletes, Rams, Blues and Cardinals tickets along with restaurant gift certificates for $1500. There will be only 5 of these sold.

This event is being held at the SunRise United Methodist Church, and additional information may be found on the SunRise UMC website here.

To learn more about Krabbe Leukodystrophy, please go to www.babyreesa.com for more information about this terrible medical condition, the beautiful little child stricken with it, and the awesome family whose universe revolves around their little girl.

Consider this my impassioned plea for our brother and sister United Cardinal Bloggers and Baseball Bloggers Alliance sites to join us in spreading the word about this family’s story and Schumaker’s charity event to benefit Baby Reesa.

-Dennis (feel free to yelp at me, gr33nazn, on Twitter for more information or to ask questions)

FYI:  SunRise UMC is located at 7116 Twin Chimneys Blvd., just off of South Outer 364 (next to Delmar Gardens) at the entrance of the Twin Chimneys subdivision in O’Fallon, Missouri.

 


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