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Hope Light Foundation (cancer awareness program) funds Health Education Graduate Assistantship

(L-R):  Joyce Fetro, Chair, Health Education and Recreation Department-SIUC; Rudy Bess, Founding Director–The Hope Light Foundation; Dr. Michael Murray, Trustee–George A. Bates Memorial Foundation; Marc Lodyga, Graduate Assistant-SIUC  Photo courtesy of The Hope Light Foundation.

Carbondale, IL, 14 December, 2009

The George A. Bates Memorial Foundation donated $10,000 to The Hope Light Foundation for use in communicating cancer awareness information and helping people fight cancer in southern Illinois.  The Bates Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in the areas of family and human services, hospitals, medical care and rehabilitation and gives primarily in Illinois and Kentucky.

This year, The Hope Light Foundation used George A. Bates Memorial Foundation funding to support the following projects in southern Illinois:

• Funded a Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC) Graduate Assistant position to research and analyze community health related behaviors and cancer death and new case rates to determine and implement cancer intervention programs.  The Graduate Assistant position resides in SIUC’s Health Education and Recreation Department.  The Graduate Assistant activities are focused on helping reduce the burden of cancer in southern Illinois communities with high and rising cancer death rates.
• Established three Hope Light Cancer Corners with all-cancers awareness and resource information in Cairo, Metropolis and Mounds, Illinois public libraries.
• Supported fundraising activities for building a Hope Light on the Ohio River in Metropolis, Illinois for use in communicating cancer awareness and as a national symbol of hope for cancer patients, cancer survivors and their family and friends.  The Hope Light will consist of a 50’ high operational lighthouse with a tribute wall to celebrate cancer survivors on the inside and a park setting on the outside to rest, relax, meditate and enjoy the Ohio River boat traffic.

Recent data released by the National Cancer Institute and the Center for Disease Control shows that 60% of the Top 20 counties in Illinois with the highest all-cancers death rates are in southern Illinois.  The data shows that lung and bronchus cancer is Illinois most deadliest cancer with 70% of the state’s Top 10 counties with the highest lung and bronchus cancer death rates are also in southern Illinois.  These are alarming facts and are The Hope Light Foundations’ major reasons for taking the fight against cancer to Illinois’s southern 34 counties.

The Hope Light Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit "public charity" supported entirely from donations.  For more information on The Hope Light Foundation and how to help save lives, go to www.hopelightproject.com.