This is Never winter Jemima, our final lamb of the season.  She is out of Poppy by Oxford.  More details about Jemima and her twin, Baltazar, are on the lamb page at www.neverwinterfarm.com.  I hope you enjoy watching these lambs grow as much as I do!

Kruetzer Farms Spirit X Springrock Shadrach.

More details on the farm website.  Thanks for checking him out!

Kruetzer Farms Spirit and her Triplets

Please go to www.neverwinterfarm.com to see the 2012 lamb arrivals.  Most will be for sale once we’ve had a chance to evaluate them for a bit.  Thanks for visiting!

Moses with St. Jude's Sophia and Blue Ewe Lavender

Chicory Lane Eli's Friday - Bred to Jefferson, but with Moses as a back up.

Painted Rock Nellie

Sophia

Never Winter Parfait, Lavender, and Sophia

We recently welcome Painted Rock Oxford to our farm.  I wasn’t planning to use him this year, but when I saw him in person….I couldn’t resist.  I decided that he and Poppy might make something special together.  So, he has just one ewe…  Blue Ewe Poppy.  It will be fun to see what this combo produces.

Diamond watching over the flock.

Rockhaven Erica, Wiggle Hill Carmen, Blue Ewe Fleur, Kruetzer Farms Spirit, Springrock Shadrach

Wiggle Hill Carmen

Blue Ewe Fleur and Wiggle Hill Carmen

Soaking up the sun's rays.

Rockhaven Erica

Carmen, Spirit, Shadrach

Fleur

Ken Bihn's beautiful Dakota.

Cure Tay-Sachs Team,

I need to change the title of this email to CTSF Monthly Update – since I only find time to do one a month anymore. Between my real job, all the great fundraisers and the start of the NFL season – I have my hands full right now. But my passion remains raising money to CURE this freakin disease!! Rest assured silence does not equal inactivity, we do not miss an oppurtunity to get money – I just don’t tell you about it as much. Let me tell you what we’ve been up to the past couple (3 or 4) weeks. This will be a long one – get comfortable!!

September was a good month – we had the Honorable Order of the Blue Goose International Ohio Pond Golf Outing (defending champion of the longest name for a fundraising event) (HOBGI), Dakota’s Dream, and the 5th Annual Princess Riley Golf Outing – I was lucky enough to attend all three!! I’ll give some detail below. September ended with total donations of $24,861 from 124 kind and generous donors. That number is even more impressive when you consider a significant portion of the money raised at those fundraisers has not been sent to the CTSF World Headquarters yet. Checks are still pending, t’s are still being crossed and i’s need to be properly dotted. It is a whole accounting thing. October – now 4 days old – has generated $12,115 from 68 kind and generous donors. The vast majority of that money was the checks arriving from Pricess Riley’s Golf Outing. All this fantastic activity has boosted our 2011 total to $227,801 from 1,115 kind and generous donors. We are actually ahead of our 2010 pace – but 2010 finished very strong – we’ll see how 2011 ends. And of course my favorite stat – since our founding in June 2007 the CTSF has generated $1,789,891 from 7,867 kind and generous donors. That what I’m talking about….. Woot, Woot. We should cross the $2 million barrier in 2012!!

So let’s briefly recap the great events in September.

• The HOBGI Golf Outing was in Dublin, OH on September 16th. The HOBGI is like an insurance association – this is the third time they have done the event to benefit the CTSF (we are very lucky to have such good friends). Every hole is sponsored by a company and a number of them do raffles or games to raise money for us. During dinner the HOBGI people handed us a check for $3,580. Then a number of skill shot winners (closest to the pin, long drive, etc) donated thier cash prizes to us. And finally they did a 50/50 raffle. The winner was in line for $250 – he had already won a $100 closest to the pin which he donated to us – and he (Joe Marinelli) picked up his winnings, walked straight over to Dakota and gave her the money with tears in his eyes. It caused tears to be in my eyes. These are good people. Overall the event raised $5,224 for Tay-Sachs disease research. Plus we got a signed guitar to hang on our walls at the World Headquarters. It is really cool!!
• Dakota’s Dream was fantastic. The weather was very nice – for a change – and the kids came in with jugs full of money. I especially like to see Bailey’s soccer friends – who started this when they where 9 years old – still collecting as 14 year old young ladies. They are the nicest kids you’d ever want to meet. So far we’ve collected $7,475 with check pending from the Olmsted Fall School system and buckets or cash that continue to arrive at our door daily. Julie and Dakota are going to the RG Jones School tomorrow to talk about Tay-Sachs and pick up some money those kids raised. I’d guess the grand total will be $11,000 or more.
• The Princess Riley Golf Outing is a MUST attend event. This year the weather was bad – cold and it rained alot. The event is outdoor all day – under cover during the awards, dinner and auction – but still open air. Most events would empty out as soon as the golf ended, but not the Luce’s friends. These people like to party and donate money. The live auction is something to behold as people are spending money like drunken (and many of them are) sailors. The combination of the September and October checks has Riley raising $17,310 – over $2,000 more than last year!!! Dakota and Ali Jean (Lahman) where the featured guests. Plus the event included a visit from the ten Berge family (all the way from NJ!!). Ali’s grandma – Jody Lahman – brought about 10,000 brownies – and they were way good. I think I gained 10 pounds in two hours (and ate 5,000 brownie)!!
• And finally the fundraising machine captained by Nathan Harney continues to generate almost daily donations. Nathan has generated $6,682 so far!! Plus I just confirmed Nathan and his parents (Kathryn and Aaron) will be coming to the 11-11-11 Tay-Sachs Charity Auction!! I am so excited to finally get to meet him and his family.

Speaking of the 2011 Tay-Sachs Charity Auction on Friday, 11-11-11 from 6pm till 11pm at the Holiday Inn Westlake - tickets are $70 for adults and $40 for kids (eating a kids meal). A full table of 10 is $700 and comes with two Browns mini helmets for getting autographs. Parking is free and the hotel is offering a special $79 rate (plus taxes) for Friday and Saturday nights (call the hotel direct 440-871-6000). We just recently picked up two Tom Brady signed helmets (sold one at Riley’s event for $1,000), a Peyton Manning signed 8×10 and $200 in Wahoo bucks (good for Cleveland Indians stuff). I have confirmed that Krystie Karl-Steiger and her family and Super Nurse Patty are coming. Nathan Harney and his family are coming. Nicki and Dave Luce are bring lots of friends, the ten Berge’s are driving over from NJ, the Manning’s are coming up from PA, the Markowich’s are making the 20 mile trip with lots of local friends. The Rabinowitz’s are coming (hopefully with baby in hand) and the Koltonski’s are flying in from Boise ID (triplets in tow)!! I also know Bridget Jordan is hoping to drive up from KY and Tim Rochman hopes to fly in from WA to meet up with the army of Rochman’s that normally come from Carbondale (you better be here Barrett!!) Ali Jean hopes to come but they need to work out a possible cousin’s arrival (read birth). We are hoping you’ll come too!! Lehman – Comb – Teasta - Tuleja – Salazar – Ogden – we’d love to have you, more kids mean more donations!! How about you Hopf, Arbogast, Fier, Wivell, Marquart, Babo (I know you can’t come), Jones and all you families that help and support us. If you know a family – invite them. All our welcome. We will have a couple Jacob Sheep Ranchers on hand plus it looks like Miguel Esteves (TSGT head researcher) will be on hand to do a presentation on the research. It will be great fun and you can learn something!! And the cherry on top – you get to meet Eric Steinbach and some of his real live Cleveland Browns friends – WOW!! I love that part!!

I have a new toy in the donation processing war. We use to do credit card transactions at events by logging onto PayPal and then entering all the information to process a transaction – took 5 to 10 minutes per person. A new app called Square is my new favorite app. They give you a FREE credit card swiping thingy (or you can buy one at Best Buy for $10 and then they credit your Square account for $10). It is very small and plugs into the headphone jack of a smart phone or iPad (we use the iPad). You enter the credit card amount and swipe the card. A transactions takes 30 seconds!! There is no sign-up fee or monthly fee and they only charge 2.75%. PayPal cost 2.9% plus 30 cents. If you have a smart phone or iPad and think your friend will donate by credit card or you are doing an event – get the app and I can give you our login information. It is really easy. Thanks to Tim Gannon for finding us this little gem!!

Our next big fundraising event is the 2nd Annual Shoot at Tay-Sachs on October 21st (a Friday – starts around 11am). It cost $375 per shooter at Hudson Farms in NJ. This is the world best shooting club owned by Peter Kellogg one of the richest people in America. Last year Peter greeted us with a $10,000 check at the door and the shoot raised $37,220!! These are very generous people – who genuinely care about our cause – they could not wait to have us back!! Who knows what this year has in store. These are people who work very hard to be successful – and they like people that work hard. No one out works the CTSF!! If you know someone who likes to shoot – tell them about the event. I am told Hudson Farms is like the Augusta (The Masters golf course) of Shooting clubs. I would pay a pretty penny to play a round of golf at Augusta!! Your friend and his friends might do the same to shoot at Hudson Farms. The event includes lunch, 10 shooting stations (100 rounds of ammo) and dinner. Even if you have never shot a gun in your life – they give you an instructer and you can shoot. I did last year!!

After the Shoot we have Trick or Treat for Tay-Sachs (around Halloween of course) in honor of Emma, then the auction (11-11-11), and Tailgate for Tay-Sachs rounds out the fun in Columbus, OH on November 19th. We even have the 2012 Tay-Sachs Charity Golf Outing already in process for February 17, 2012 (in Naples FL where it is warm!!). We are racing towards $2 million in donations!!

This update is very, very long – but there is so much I wanted to share. The TSGT is having a conference call on October 12th to discuss thier progress. The CTSF is funding the vector manufacturing trials at UC Davis ($30,000) and has recently voted to cover the $110,000 in consulting fees. Next we hope to fund the Primate Study ($150,000) and full blown vector manufacturing ($400,000)!! The other family foundations are covering the Auburn sheep expenses ($110,000) and we split (50/50) the cost of the Natural History Study ($228,000). That leaves only the Toxicity study costs – $250,000!! We are getting very close!!! Plus there is other good news about vectors and NIH funding – but I don’t know what I am allowed to say. Come to the 11-11-11 Auction and Miguel will tell you himself .

The CTSF continues to exceed all my expectations – and I have high expectations. More and more families are joining the fight!! The once gigantic $1.3 million we needed to expedite the clinical trials to October 2012 is now nearly funded!! We can do this!! Everyone do thier part!! This is not someone elses problem – not the goverment or healthcares problem. This is OUR problem and we can solve it. Tell your story – tell our story. People care!! Miracle happen!! This disease is going down!!

Choo! Choo!!! Choo!!!!! (My Cleveland Browns colors!!)

Ken

The big 11-11-11 event is nearly here!

I am planning to bring Dashing to SAFF in Asheville, NC in October and he is entered to show there.  If a breeder in the Northeast would purchase Dashing, Royal Unzicker can transport back from Asheville to his farm.  I WILL PAY ROYAL TO TRANSPORT FOR YOU TO HIS FARM FROM SAFF.  You will need to arrange to pick him up from Royal’s farm.  (Or possibly meet him along the way.)  The pedigree for this guy is quite nice.  Painted Rock Moses (JSBA # B039-11) X Blue Ewe Eire (JSBA # D039-07.)    Dashing has a great dark black color intensity and a long and very soft fleece with lots of crimp that is not a defined crimp, but the subtle type of crimp.  Great stretch, luster, and spring to his fleece and oh so soft with no quilting or freckling.  Please call me if you want further details.  678-596-7776.  He is priced at $275. and again this will include transport to Royal’s place, which I will cover for you.

This is Canoe Lake Sonic Boom (Boomer.)  He is a very handsome 4 horn black and white twin out of lilac carrier parents.  (Patchwork MacGyver X Blue Ewe Blazing Star.)  Boomer is available for sale with transport to SAFF as an option, as he will be shown there.

If you want further details, please contact Cathy Brown at Canoe Lake Farm at 706-338-8052.  (I would hurry as I doubt he will be available for long.)

*Note – I still have Never Winter Dashing available for sale and he will also be showing at SAFF.  I plan to post updated photos soon, so stay tuned.  ALSO NOTE – I AM LOOKING INTO SECURING AVAILABLE TRANSPORT TO THE NORTHEAST FROM SAFF.  THERE IS A VERY GOOD POSSIBILITY THAT TRANSPORT WILL BE AVAILABLE, SO KEEP THIS IN MIND.

*Newsflash – Royal Unzicker is willing to transport back from SAFF!