Welcome to the Spokane Ostomy Support Group-Lilac City Pouchers Fundraising Page!
Here's a Snapshot of Our History and Purpose!
Spokane Ostomy Support Group was started in Spokane, WA in the mid-1970's by a group of nurses at Sacred Heart Hospital and were affiliated with the United Ostomy Association (UOA). It continued supporting ostomates, later facilitated by nurses at Deaconess Hospital, through the 1980s, 1990s, and into the early-mid-2000s when the group returned to Sacred Heart and the now-defunct UOA became the United Ostomy Associations of America (UOAA). Carol Nelson, our current coordinator/meeting facilitator, attended her first meeting in 1977, Phil Moyle first participated in a few meetings in 1985, and Susie Leonard Weller went to her first meeting in 2009. It was at that time, 2009-10, that Susie began facilitating Spokane Ostomy Support Group meetings in coordination with the busy WOCN staff at Sacred Heart. And from that time through now, SOSG has flourished, still with support from our wonderful Wound and Ostomy nurses! Since then, we began publishing the quarterly "InSider" Newsletter that is distributed to ostomates and family members in seven support groups in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, started and maintain a website, Inland NW Ostomy Support (https://inlandnwostomy.org/) to assist these same groups, and formally organized into a nonprofit 501(c)(3) in cooperation with UOAA.
To enhance fundraising for UOAA's outreach efforts to assist ostomates across the USA, we formed the Lilac City Pouchers? Why that name? Spokane became known as “The Lilac City” in the early 1930s when the local garden club planted a wide variety of lilac bushes throughout the City. And what more fitting place to hold Spokane OSG's informal Run/Walk/Stroll for Resilience Ostomy 5k on October 5 than in Manito Park where the Lilac Garden contains over 100 cultivars from 23 distinct species, making it one of the most important lilac gardens in the West. Thus we proudly call ourselves the Lilac City Pouchers.
This year, we have committed to spend Ostomy Awareness Day, Saturday, October 5th, as part of a group of ostomates with family and friends empowering people who have had or who will have ostomy or continent diversion surgery. Several formal Run for Resilience Ostomy 5k events similar to ours will be held in cities around the USA! In order to fulfill our commitment, we ask for your help in raising funds to increase awareness about ostomates in our communities. These funds will support United Ostomy Associations of America (UOAA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that makes a difference in the lives of the 725,000 to 1 million Americans who have had ostomy or continent diversion surgery. These surgeries are life-saving, and have allowed many people to return to living a healthy life.
We are writing to share our story, and to ask you to support us as we train to participate in this 5k race. To find out more about the Run For Resilience Ostomy 5k please visit www.ostomy5k.org, and to learn more about UOAA please visit www.ostomy.org.
We have set our fundraising goal at $5000, every cent of which will go to the UOAA and is tax deductible. You can help us achieve this goal and help pay tribute to those who need our help. Please support our fundraising campaign by clicking the donate link to sponsor our efforts to meet our fundraising goal, or click Register to join us!
Thank you for your support. Not only will you be helping me reach my goal, but you will help each and every person who has had or who may one day have ostomy or continent diversion surgery.
Sincerely, , , Phil Moyle and Jen Small, Co-Captains of the Lilac City Pouchers
