Do you want the good news or the bad news?

THE BAD NEWS: The Director of Public Relations from JOHN DEERE emailed me today with this response: Thank you for taking the time to contact John Deere. Although it is always difficult to learn about the struggles of a young person with serious illness, we were encouraged by the information available describing the strong spirit of Coleman Larson. Deere provides millions of dollars annually through corporate donations and the John Deere Foundation to non-profit organizations that address world hunger, community betterment and education. Each year, John Deere is asked by hundreds of worthy organizations and individuals to help their cause. While it is clear that nearly each request is worthy, we must decline many of the opportunities. Our charitable-giving guidelines do not allow donations to individuals or to organizations in honor of an individual. In addition, our guidelines do not provide financial support to health care research. Through our considerable tax contributions annually, we believe we help support significant government-funded medical research that someday might find a cure for cancer and other deadly diseases. We appreciate the well-intended effort to initiate company support for this family and we hope you understand how our guidelines simply do not allow Deere to assist in this way. We encourage you to help where you can and we will remain hopeful for a positive outcome. I know, I know. You just threw your keyboard across the room and you are pacing and mumbling in a tone that makes your family members back away. ....KEEP READING.... Let's just re-group. Put on a new attitude and move on. There is something out there that can be done for TEAM LARSON! I have always said, "Out of every negative comes a positive." We may not always SEE it right away but at some point you can almost always look back and say, "Ooohhhhh, that's why..." So, JOHN DEERE saying no just means we had to get them out of the way so the REAL idea/event/inspiration can get to us quicker! And Mimi is already in the planning stages of Plan B! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT send emails to JOHN DEERE telling them ....well, saying the words you are thinking right now...let's be growED ups :) and move on...FOR COLEMAN! THE GOOD NEWS: Curt McCormick from WWW.CURESEARCH.COM contacted me also today! He was very excited about what we are trying to do and will be doing what he can to point us in the right direction when we DO (I said WHEN, not IF) find a company that will support Childhood Cancer and donate in COLEMAN'S name! Check out the CURESEARCH blog tomorrow - I think you will like what you see. This was Curt's email: Michelle, What a great idea! This is Curt McCormick from CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation. I saw this on Google alerts, and just had to write in.I'd like to feature your blog today on our CureSearch blog. I hope this helps you with the John Deere initiative, and helps direct more people to sites like yours, which are so innovative and thoughtful regarding curing childhood cancer.You can check out the CureSearch site at http://curesearchnccf.blogspot.com/...and PLEASE KNOW what an inspiration you are to us. Folks in the childhood cancer community are so wonderful. We know who we work for at CureSearch, for you and for all these kids!Congratulations and good luck with your idea. Email me offline if you want to talk more. Best regards, Curt McCormick So, let's keep plugging away! Let's keep smiling! And don't stop PRAYING...FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!