My Friend

There is this guy that I am friends with. His name is Jesse. I have known him my entire life. We went to church together. We went to school together. We graduated together. But after graduation, we went off to do our own things and lost touch.

Well, right after I started working at the body shop, he was in town on leave from the Coast guard to visit his dad and just happened to stop in to see my boss. I was SO surprised to see him. We have run into each other a few times and talked on the phone a little since then. Now he is a friend on Facebook and his status update yesterday made me proud to be his friend.

His status said that he has decided to do a fundraiser to raise money for breast cancer research. I don't have many details other than he is going to ride his bike a crazy long distance (like across the country) and it will start sometime in September when he gets discharged from the Coast Guard.

His mom died from breast cancer when we were 9. I can still remember how frail and tired she looked right before she lost her battle.

Anyway, he was asking for suggestions on how to get it all started and tips to make sure the fundraising goes smoothly. He also wants to write about the whole process from the beginning. One of his sisters suggested creating a blog or website to help spread the word about what he is doing as well as somewhere to record his experiences. I suggested he create a paypal account for it and get that paypal donate button/widget. I also told him that I would do whatever I could to help him out, whether it be going to the local businesses to ask for donations or building him a blog or helping him get a non-profit thing together. Anything.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I would be happy to pass it along to him.