Keith McKeever 0:24

Hey, welcome back for another episode of mission 309. I have Stacey McCormick with me. And welcome to, to the vlog show here, Stacey.

Stacie McCormack 0:33

Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to get to chat a little bit and excited that we met at a chamber meeting haphazardly.

Keith McKeever 0:42

You never know who you're gonna bump into in any given day. Yeah, yeah. So

Stacie McCormack 0:45

yeah.

Keith McKeever 0:46

So I'm excited to hear a little bit about what you've got going on with your nonprofit. It's lymphomas, a loser.com. I've got that scrolling across the bottom. But go ahead and tell us a little bit about your story and how you got this, this nonprofit started and why it started.

Stacie McCormack 1:02

Yeah, so I'm back in 2013, my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma. And the lymphoma is a loser. And he was one of those things where he just had like a cough that wouldn't go away. And, you know, try to just take some over the counter medicine for it, and finally went through the motions of getting checked out. And so in January, it took a couple of months for him to get a correct diagnosis. But he was diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma in January of 2013. So he had a four year journey with two separate stem cell transplants. So he did have one locally here in Peoria, and then the second one was a donor transplant. So we did that in Chicago, so we had to live in Chicago for four months, which was not my favorite part of the journey. But at any rate, um, he actually ended up passing in January of 2017, his cancer was gone, but he had some complications from the transplant. So after a while, during his, um, one of the times that he had relapsed, one of my best friends, her husband was diagnosed with lymphoma as well. And I remember, like, it was yesterday, her calling me and saying, Stacy, we have something in common. And I'm like, Well, of course we do. We've been friends since high school. And for a reason, right? And she's like, Oh, my husband just got diagnosed with lymphoma. And I'm like, what? It's like, what are the chances? You know, I mean, when you're not in that cancer world, like you don't think about other people who have maybe had that journey, or you don't hear about it. So it actually, you know, brought us a lot closer together. And we, I was able to help her go through the testing processes, and chemo treatment, and the the husbands were able to talk. And one of the things that we did was, we always, like, I don't even think hash tagging on Facebook was like a thing. But for whatever reason, we just kind of started doing that. And so one of our hashtags was lymphoma as a loser. And we just thought, we're being funny. And, um, fast forward, you know, five years, six years, and here we are. But, um, so when we, you know, when John was sick, he always wanted to, like, help other people. So we had a friend who got diagnosed with breast cancer, as he was going through treatment, and he was like, we have to send her a care package. He tried to mail her wine. I'm like, you can't make a wine? That's, yeah, I

Keith McKeever 3:39

don't think you can do that.

Stacie McCormack 3:41

Yeah, you cannot. He went to the post office with wine like he wanted, you know, he knew that that would cheer her up. And we had some other things that we sent. And we kind of decided then that we wanted to give back locally. And so we, I said, we cashed in all of our, you know, let me know if you need something because people don't know, you know, anything specific to do for you. So it's like, and I'm guilty of saying it and I'm like, Stacy, that's not the right thing to do. You need to just do the things. And I said, You know what, like, well, let's do something for the treatment rooms at the Pekin clinic, which Pekin has an Illinois Cancer Care Clinic. A lot of people didn't know that either. So the pure clinic gets the bulk of the donations, that's their, like, main main clinic or I can't that's not the word I want to use, but it is. Anyway, they get a lot of sentence. And so John would always be like, Man, that's like the Country Club of Illinois cancer care clinics because they have pets that come around and they serve you cookies. And you know, they do all these cool things where the smaller clinics don't have that opportunity to necessarily and the peeking clinic they have in beautiful new clinic now but the clinic when he got treated, was very small and so he Couldn't have anybody sit with him during treatment. And so it was important to us to come up with a way to give patients like something to do when they were at clinic. And so we made up bags, we call them all the favors all the you know, let me know if you need some things and we raised like $2,000. And so we bought like little lunch pails like the like the insulated ones. We bought some of those we bought color books like the adult coloring books, peppermint be peppermints because peppermint can help with nausea when you're getting a treatment. Oh, playing cards. We put like a bottle of water with like a packet of like lemonade, or, you know, just just all kinds of little things. We put all those together and we took them to the peeking clinic. And so that was just kind of our way of giving back to patients that weren't being treated at the puree clinic. Um, but we're, you know, it's still nice to get something you know, even if it's not something that they're maybe not necessarily going to use, it's something that they, it's, it's nice to receive things right to know that something's

Keith McKeever 6:09

off account. So somebody thinks, yeah, yeah, give it something to put a little smile on your face. Well, yeah,

Stacie McCormack 6:15

yeah. And of course, right now, I can't think of like any of the other stuff that we put in, but we put a ton of stuff in these bags. Um, so anyway, we, we did that, you know, it started early. So then once John had passed, and I was like, I just really want to do something on a bigger scale. And I don't know what I want to do, I just want to do it. Like if I had to go through four years of treatment and two transplants and helping my best friend, you know, get through everything. And

Stacie McCormack 6:45

you know, it's, I got to find a bigger way to do it. And so we

Stacie McCormack 6:52

kind of decided, like, let's do this. Let's, let's figure it out. So. So yeah, we knew that lymphoma is a loser kind of had to be the name. And I mean, we're not we don't do things just for lymphoma patients. That's just that's just the kind of our tagline and our way to give back to the community.

Keith McKeever 7:12

That's awesome. Yeah. And I think it's, it's awesome to give back to people in this this cancer care centers, because that's an incredibly difficult thing to deal with. I'm assuming. Yeah. I mean, I've seen it my, my father actually passed away of cancer when I was 16. So a little bit of time, when I was 16 years old, drove him to and from Methodist, I think, is where he got his treatment. Yeah, a long time ago now, but I know, those are not the most cheerful, upbeat environments, you know, and I think that's one of the things you have to have mentality wise. You know, to fight something as big as cancer or any other major disease doesn't have to be you have to have the right kind of mindset and just stay positive in some way, shape, or form. So put a little smile on somebody's face, it makes it makes a difference in a day.

Stacie McCormack 8:04

Yeah. And that was one of our, like, big things is that I actually, I'm still, you know, texts with one of and hang out with one of the the nurses that that John had, and she was, you know, close in age to him. And we got, we got very close to her, we, you know, he spent lots of time sitting in the treatment room. And, you know, she would crack jokes with him. And he always wanted to have the prices right on. And so after he passed, I bought a TV for the clinic, they had like an old tube TV. And so I took it in and I'm like, listen, Heather, here's your deal, this thing has to be on the prices right at 10. Or I'm gonna take it back home. Like, you have to have it like it has to be on the prices, right? Like, that's just the thing. And she's like, we can do that. So, um, and now that they have a new clinic, they have, you know, nice new TVs and things like that. So I think they put my, the one that I bought, I think they took it with them, but they put it in the break room.

Keith McKeever 9:00

Okay, still there for a cause. Right?

Stacie McCormack 9:02

Yes, it is. Yeah, and it's, it is it's a hard situation when you're going through that, but when you do have people that are caring for you, you know, the nurses and just the staff at, I mean, I could never have a job where I worked with patients that were very sick, like, Yes, I cared for my husband. But at the same time, like it takes a very, very special person to work in that oncology environment. And we, you know, we that's another reason why we wanted to give back because we know how lucky we were to have made, you know, genuine friends through the process. So, so yeah, so it's nice to be able to, to give back and show them some love since they, you know, took care of us during the I mean, I remember getting handed a clipboard to sign for a treatment and was like, don't look me in the face. Just sign that like I can't look at you because I'm going to cry. And it's like when you have people who care about you and your situation, you know, just as much as you do. Like, it's a great, great feeling. So, I mean, I feel like how could you not want to? You know, pay it forward or give back?

Keith McKeever 10:12

Absolutely. So what are you guys doing as an organization? Now to give back? What are some things you've done recently? Yeah,

Stacie McCormack 10:19

so we do, um, kind of how everything started to go with the full blown nonprofit is we took over an event that was in Morton for five years. It's the totes for takase event. So it's like a designer. It's not like a designer, or is a designer versus

Keith McKeever 10:37

what is like a designer knockoffs from from some other country.

Stacie McCormack 10:41

Yeah, no, they're real purses. They're real purses. But we get um, you know, live like actual auctioneers not pretending to be an auctioneer, it's, you know, they're up there. Flying

Keith McKeever 10:55

up, you can pretend to be an auctioneer.

Stacie McCormack 10:58

Really not very good at

Keith McKeever 11:00

special skills. I don't know how they do it.

Stacie McCormack 11:01

Yeah, yeah. So we've had a couple of different groups of auctioneers that have helped us out over the years. But I mean, it's it's live auctioneers up there, slinging coach bags, and Kate Spade and Michael Kors. And so we do that event in October. It's the third Saturday in October every year. This year, it's October 15. And we this last year, we were able to donate from that event $18,000 to Illinois cancer care's Breast Cancer Research Fund, so on, and we do stuff throughout the year, we have purses at a couple of boutiques locally, Riviera tan here in Pekin has them and then timeless treasure market over and Metamora has, they also have donation bins there as well. So we take donations year round for that. And they don't have to be new bags, they can be what we call gently loved. But we took over that event five years ago, or after they've done it for five years. So we have done it for three years. And once we kind of took that over, it was like okay, well, if we're gonna do this, let's do it. And right after that, we a friend approached me about doing a golf outing, which he'd asked me about before, and I was like, I'm not ready. I can't, I don't know.

Keith McKeever 12:19

Undertaking logistics wise. It's a

Stacie McCormack 12:21

lot. It's a lot to do. And he's like, Oh, I you know, I've done tons of golf outings, and I was like, I've done zero. So, um, after after I had already taken on the commitment of doing this, you know, Tas event, he was like, Well, what do you think I was like? Yeah, fine. Like, again, go bigger, go home. Like, let's do it. So the Johnny mat golf Palooza is what we call it. And we do that in it's the last Saturday of August, is kind of the date that we have settled on. But that's August 27. This year. So it's a four person scramble. And it's like, not your average golf outing. Like we want it to be fun. John was a terrible golfer. But he wanted to have like, like, he had like the nicest golf clubs of all his friends, right? Like, he you know, like, oh, I have to have these golf clubs. If I get these golf clubs, I'm going to golf more

Keith McKeever 13:19

when you are a bad player. You have to try to look good. You

Stacie McCormack 13:25

I guess I guess that's, that's what you have to do. But

Keith McKeever 13:29

I've got some old Hami downs and I bought for 100 bucks or some guy Craigslist years ago.

Stacie McCormack 13:37

I mean, if they if they get you out on the course with friends on a nice day, then who cares? Right? Like, I don't always have to be like, the best golfer and that's kind of the theme of our, our tournament. Yeah, we'll hand out a prize for the winners, but we have you like putt from a toilet? Oh, that's sweet. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 13:58

Cuz that's, that's the only Golf I really play us golf.

Stacie McCormack 14:00

Yeah, there's a lot of people that are like that. There's a lot of people that are like that. So yeah, Cory was like, Well, I always I always want to wanted to do that, you know, I've, but he had been the golf pro at like, fancy country clubs and, and things like that. And I was like, Well, I mean, you're the director of golf here in Pickens. So, I mean, you insert yourself i don't know i He doesn't he has a boss but but um, yeah, so we have a a toilet that we put out on? On the whole they're on Park View. And that's everybody always is like, are you bringing the toilet back? I'm like, oh, that will we'll switch up other holes, but we will always have the toilet just for something fun. So we usually do. Coreys here in town is always so nice. And we'll donate. They've donated a wing party. And so it's kind of a cool price to when you get like wings for a couple hours or whatever for 10 people or something and so, um, so we usually have that be the price for that whole. So the first year I think only One person made it in. And then this last year, I think we had four people make it. And so I had to like draw, you know, we put them all in a bucket and drew the names out.

Keith McKeever 15:10

I have to start thinking about you know, I mean, how do you golf? I wonder if there's YouTube videos on that?

Stacie McCormack 15:15

There probably is. Definitely is I don't think there's a lot of skill involved, to be honest.

Keith McKeever 15:21

I mean, honestly, I wouldn't for golfing for me, I've got to be sober and serious and or I'd better be, you know, have a few beers down and loosened up. Again, but I got to play one way or another, and sit on a toilet. Yes. I'm just trying to like, how would I even swing the club? Or, you know, I'm assuming solid green? Yeah. You know, how do you hold the club? Yeah, you know, they'll teach you

Stacie McCormack 15:52

they go and we like to do that we did another hole that a lot of people like one of my friends little guys watched dude, perfect all the time. I know you have kids, I don't know, dude, perfect. But, um, where we just take like a bunch of different it started, we just grabbed like stuff they had in their garage. So it was like a tennis racquet, a football a soccer ball, a Frisbee, like for like frisbee, golfing. And we had them like, they had to use that to like, play the hole. So, um, that was one that everybody you know. And I will say we've been very blessed with like, even being in a pandemic, to be able to still have the events in 2020 and 2021. And to be able to do it safely. I know that, like, that's, that's a huge thing. You know, we were like, are we going to be able to do any fundraising events, we don't want to take a year off and then lose the momentum that we've you know, kind of started creating and stuff so. So we were able to do to do everything. So we didn't do the all sports hole as we call it in 2020, because we were just worried about sanitizing stuff. And you don't know I mean, you know, everybody's touching everything. And so, so we did not do that hole. And we did do though, we called it the club checker. So you got a prize for throwing a golf club the furthest. Now, we have since retired the club checker because it proved to be a little to danger.

Keith McKeever 17:27

I can see that going sideways. I'm

Stacie McCormack 17:29

kinda surprised that we actually got away with it for two years. But But yes, the club did go sideways a time or two. I bet yeah. It wasn't at that whole the whole time. But yeah, so we, we do those are our two, you know, primary events. That's kind of the events that got us started doing the the totes for Tatas. And so, you know, now we just kind of look for some different ways to, to get our name out there and to keep you know, keep, like I said, the momentum going, you know, it's we don't want to be the, you know, we were just the what's the Johnny Mac golf palooza? Well, you know, we actually are a 501 C three, you know, registered nonprofit. And so that nonprofit is lymphomas a loser, we just hold the events, Johnny Mac golf Palooza and toes for Tata. So. So that's been a little bit of a hurdle for, for people to understand. And you know, you start we did start getting that momentum, but then it's like, well, we, you know, your tax receipt is going to come from lymphomas a loser. And that's what a lot of people, you know, care about, is that for any, you know, donations or sponsorships, you know, if that's something that we can, you know, provide for that. So,

Keith McKeever 18:43

absolutely. So you kind of mentioned the pandemic, and fundraising and I, I'd venture to say every single nonprofit out there had their own unique challenges with that. But would you say that, maybe it in some way, shape or form might have been a good way for creativity? If you had to find any ways to, you know, work around restrictions and things you couldn't couldn't do to try and raise funds?

Stacie McCormack 19:06

Did I prompt you for that? Did I tell you something? Because there is there is one, I mean, there's several little things right? One of the big things that we did is that, um, all the previous years that we had attended totes, for Tatas. And the first year that we did it, we did like the paper silent auction forms. Well, with COVID We were like, how are we going to do this and people aren't going to be comfortable, you know, coming to an event. We can't have, you know, a ton of people in one place. So, um, we did for 2020 We did the totes for Tots event. We had just We held it as like an open house over you know, like four or five hours. And then our auction we did everything was silent auction and we use a website called charity auctions today. And we found that that was, you know, fit our situations of SCS. There's some, you know, additional fees involved. But we had somebody who won, you know, was the highest bidder that was in like, I want to say it was like Oklahoma, or something like that a family member that had encouraged them to sign up and they took off, I didn't have to ship it to Oklahoma, they took everything. So we've continued to use that that online platform for our silent auction. You know, obviously, the the live auction when everybody can kind when can be in the same room and can be excited. And, you know, that kind of gets gets everybody gets everybody kind of pumped up to, oh, I'm going to outbid this person or that person or, you know, you've maybe had a glass of wine or two, and maybe more than you would have had at home looking at your phone. Um, so yeah, so with that, really, um, the online auction, really, like I said, if you can't come to the event, you don't feel comfortable coming, you know, with the COVID and stuff, like they were able to still participate. You know, virtually and, and I really didn't have that many items to deliver, it was a lot of the kind of the good part about it being a little bit of a smaller event is that people could a lot of that people were like friends of our committee members or something, or, you know, to friends bid on stuff. And so they both, you know, one picked up for two people or things like that. So yeah. Yeah, cuz that's the only, the only part is you're like, oh, shoot, am I gonna have to ship? Well? Yeah, I mean, I don't know, we didn't account for that when we, you know, really started thinking about it. But But yeah, so we've had, and we did ship a couple of things, but not, you know, we had this past year, we had a, my friend sells Pampered Chef, and so she had donated, like, casserole dishes. And I was like, I'm gonna have to ship that. And then I'm like, I had text the person. They're like, No, no, just give it to someone. So I'm like, Oh, that would have been a heavy one to

Keith McKeever 22:09

that one. Wow. So got those two events this year. What else? Anything else that your organization is looking to do it? Or what's up? Or anything that you guys need help with? Um, yeah. So it's always the easy thing.

Stacie McCormack 22:28

We um, so last year, we did a hanging basket fundraiser, I had initially reached out to a nursery about doing a mom fundraiser, you see those, you know, a lot of times sports teams doing that. And after I thought about it, I was like, that's right in the middle of our two events, like, our events are literally like six weeks apart. And so you can only go to the wall so many times, right? Like you want your friends to support you, and they're happy to support you. But you don't want to you know, that's the timing wasn't really good for that. But they said, Hey, we do a hanging basket fundraiser. And I was like, I'll try it. So we did that last year. And we're going to, hopefully here in the next couple of weeks, we should be doing that again. And we'll have all the information out on our Facebook page and on our website and whatnot. And then they usually come in those types of things. They'll come in like right before Mother's Day. It's like a week or two. Perfect. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'll

Keith McKeever 23:26

speak to the guys guys pay attention.

Stacie McCormack 23:27

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Or even people like me that have a black thumb. Like I can't I kill the mums once. I mean, it's terrible. And so I'm like, I don't, I'm not buying for myself, but I'll buy one for my mom or I buy one for my grandma or something like that. But I know I've got big plans

Keith McKeever 23:46

hopes point over the wrong shoulder here. But yeah, that's fake. So is the one over in the corner.

Stacie McCormack 23:52

Yeah, yeah. I even tried to grow cactus last year. And that didn't work out. I'm like, you really don't even have to water a cactus.

Keith McKeever 24:00

That's good point. Yeah.

Stacie McCormack 24:06

So we're gonna do the, the flower fundraiser here. Again, like I said, hopefully we'll get that information in the next couple of weeks. They don't come in until the end of April. So there's plenty of time before we do that, and then we're hoping to do a need to kind of get get on it to maybe do like a trivia night. I know, that's something that we've wanted to kind of do. And I know there are some other places locally that that do that and where, you know, you don't have to do come up with the questions and whatnot. Like, Bobby a lot of work. Yeah, that's, that's my concern.

Keith McKeever 24:44

You know, you make everybody mad by having a sports category.

Stacie McCormack 24:49

Yeah, so um, so yeah, we're thinking, you know, we kind of want to do that we, we want to come up with some other little things to do, you know, throughout the year that aren't, you know, we don't necessarily have the capacity to do Do you know, huge events, I mean, we all work full time. Nobody's This is not a nonprofit that somebody is, you know, taking a paycheck or anything like that. So any donations go directly to our, our fundraising efforts. But I mean, I would love for that to be my full time job to be to be able to just do that and give back to the community. But I'm not in a position to do that now. So I still I like to say that my job that pays my bills gets in the way of my fun side gig. Like, I really do that, because I actually have to work. So. Um, so yeah, so we're gonna, we want to come come up with some more things to do. Like I said, trivia nights, we've tossed around the idea tossed around of doing a bags tournament, or something like that, we you know, we kind of have kind of something else where it's just, you know, doesn't take us four months to prep. More, some more things that take, you know, just a few, few hours of prep, and maybe some dining out nights, that's something else that we have done in the past that we'd like to do, you know, again, in the future, just to keep keep keep our name out there and, you know, be able to find ways to give back. So,

Keith McKeever 26:22

absolutely. Yeah, you know, you kind of hit on something that I've heard before. It's, there's no shortage of ideas. There's tons of fundraising, it all comes down to the timing, and the volunteers to run it. Yes, it I mean, without the timing without being able to put it together and host it within whatever timeframe you need, or an office, it's just never gonna happen. Because I've had ideas for nonprofits I've been associated with, you know, and it's like, okay, pump the brakes, Keith, like, is there? Do we have people for that? I mean, if

Stacie McCormack 26:53

you want to pass them along, yeah. Pass your ideas along. We're gonna start committee meeting soon. Um, but we like,

Keith McKeever 27:05

if I get any, I will pass them along. Yes, yes,

Stacie McCormack 27:07

we, um, you know, that's one thing that I should know is that, like, I certainly don't do anything by myself, we have a huge group of friends and families that, you know, I have things people from, like, I will be at every meeting, I will, you know, I'll run the meeting. And from out there, I, you know, we'll do everything that I can for you. And then there's, you know, friends that are like, I don't really like to go to meetings. But if you give me a job on the date of the event, I'm there, and I'm like, I need those people to nobody is going to offend me, you know, if you're someone who is really good at serving food, then great, I am not, you know, like I and it's hard for me to be pinned down in one, one place for any period of time, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off every event, but, but we do, and I wouldn't have been able to even start anything without knowing that I do have a great support system, you know, the support system that supported us through our cancer journey is still the same people who are supporting me in our in our fundraising efforts, and and, you know, executing these events. And, you know, sometimes it's just like, I can't be there for that event. But hey, I'll you know, here's a person you can contact for, you know, a food vendor, or, you know, this, I'd like to donate something, a raffle, you know, both of our events we have for the golf outing, we do raffles for the totes, for touch as we do silent auction. We've done a few different raffle things, it just kind of depends on what we have to see what works. But, you know, we take donations for those kinds of things. And it's nice to have, you know, those people that are like, Well, I'm not going to be able to do this or that. But, you know, can I give a donation and so and, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, nothing, no donation is too small. I mean, we can, we can use anything, you know, we make up. I have a 14 year old that I put to work, making, making baskets. And, you know, I remember this year, I was like, Hey, can you use this? And she's like, well, what is that? I said, it's a luggage tag? And she's like, yes, yes. And she comes back five minutes later with like, all this, like, you know, travel li stuff put all together in a basket. And I was like, why keep you around kid?

Keith McKeever 29:27

Somebody who's got to be creative, right?

Stacie McCormack 29:29

Yes, yes. And I'm not i That's not I mean, I can do those things, but I'm not quick at it. And so, you know, to have that person who is the director of judging as she calls herself. Um, but she knows she knows that, you know, that's her job. And that's, that's what you know, she'll do for that day or, you know, setting up for the golf outing. I'm like, somebody said, Can I help you? And I said, Yes, but you're gonna listen to that 13 year old over there. She don't she she has a Plan and she knows what she's doing. And so please just let her tell you what to do I understand she's 13. But she knows, she knows. And so I'm not she doesn't win every battle, she doesn't get get to just run the show. Let's be clear.

Keith McKeever 30:13

Now let the kids have their head get too big, right? Yeah,

Stacie McCormack 30:16

yeah, no, but she knows, she knows that. That's, that's what she's good at. And that's, that's her, her specialty. And she knows that I'm not, you know, I'm like, here make this pretty. I, you know, I have other things I'm working on you do this part. So, um, so it's kind of

Keith McKeever 30:33

it's involved, too. Yeah. And, you know, that's something that, that these younger generations, you know, need to get out and volunteer to see what that does, you know, volunteers will get what I'm saying. But yes, people, you know, it's, it just does something in your heart to give back in some way, even if it's small.

Stacie McCormack 30:55

Yeah. And I'm glad that you kind of caught that. I, that is another thing that is, you know, very important to me, it's kind of like, it's not that I'm like succession planning just yet, you know, like, I'm not, I'm not done with anything. But, um, you know, the, so Elizabeth said, that makes those Evan who came up with the, this the all sports whole, you know, for the golf outing, and kind of wanted to do that. He wanted to actually have them use an ore on the green. And we were told that we, that maybe wasn't a good idea. So, yeah, so we went with something else. So, um, but both of them know, you know, they knew John and, you know, while they were young, when John passed, like, John is still, you know, they're still pictures of them with John when they were little and, and they're their family, that particular family, you know, gives back they're very involved with their church and things like that. And so, you know, they always like, it's kind of funny that I kind of joke that, like, if there's a volunteer opportunity, they're not going to pass it up. So that's, you know, that the kids, those two in particular, have it ingrained in their head that that's just what you do. And they are full blown members of lymphoma as a loser, and you don't try to tell them otherwise. Because they know how important that is to me and how, you know, and I'll talk to them about what do you think about this? And they'll come up with ideas, we'll be sitting eating dinner, and they'll throw out something? Well, we should, why don't we do this? And sometimes we're like, why don't we? Why didn't we think of that. And

Keith McKeever 32:34

brains work differently sometimes.

Stacie McCormack 32:38

Not only them, but um, there's a couple of other kids that we have known, you know, since they were, you know, five and six years old, and they're in high school now. And they help out with the events, and they know that they're going to be there all day on the golf outing, or they're, they know that, you know, they will help set up tables and things like that, and do whatever, you know, we need them to do and so it's it is kind of heartwarming to see them wanting, you know, they're not doing it because somebody is telling them to do it. Like they really want to help out and they want to be involved. And you know, they want to they want to give back and they, in fact, haven't done Elizabeth their grandmother passed last December. And they the family decided that memorial contributions could come to lymphomas a loser. And so I'm like, well, we've never had this happened before. What can we do? And so a way to kind of get the the kids involved is we decided those we went back to the drawing board where John and I had done the the bags for the treatment room at the Peking clinic and I said, What do you guys think about this, like, let's get some bags. So we got some canvas tote bags with our logo on it. And they took the kids shopping to buy all the stuff to fill it. So we had, I took them with me. Menards always has a super good deal. You can take the girl out of Menards but she can't take the girl. So we um, they always had a good deal on like those fleece blankets. Were a couple bucks. And so we I took the kids with me and we said we're gonna go buy these blankets. And they were like, because I buy them every year pretty much anyway and take them to the clinic. And so the kids were like, how many? How many? We're gonna buy and I said fill up the cart. What fill up the cart? Like yes, just fill up the cart. We're gonna just buy a cart full of blankets. That's how many we're gonna buy and they're like, I think there used to be telling them that we have a budget. They're like, wait a minute, I'm like, No, we're gonna fill up the whole cart and so so We bought blankets. So every bag got a fleece blanket and it got things I mentioned before the coloring books, the we actually did jigsaw puzzles, um, hand sanitizer, we had put hand sanitizer and before hand sanitizer was like the cool thing, you know, when it's hard to get, yes, yes, we while we could get our hands on it, we put hand sanitizer we did, trying to think what else they bought, like they just, they just again, load figured out how many we needed to buy to do, you know, one round of bags to take to the clinic and and then we printed up like a little postcard size that said that these were donated in memory of pack Karlis. And we put it into the bags and took those to the clinic. And so it actually worked out that we were able to go to the clinic, like after they had clothes, there was no patients in there, everybody was messed up. And so they got to be there when we gave them to, you know, the folks at the clinic. And so that was really kind of a special, a special way for them to be, you know, involved. And they got to pick some of the things that went into the bags. And you know, well, what about this? Or, you know, what about a jigsaw puzzle or the playing cards, you know, just different things that, again, it's, you know, stuff that people can do while they're sitting there receiving treatment. And again, it just kind of is another way to, you know, for us to give back specifically, like I said to the peeking clinic and and have the kids involved.

Keith McKeever 36:31

So that's awesome. Sure, that's something they will never forget. Yeah, yeah. Something like that.

Stacie McCormack 36:37

Yeah, it's a, it's a good way to, um, it was, it was a good way to have them come up with ideas of what to put in it, you know, I mean, we kind of prompted them with a few things, but then they, they kind of took it and ran with it and found you know, certain coloring pencils to put in with the the color book and things like that. So. So yeah, it was, it's always good to have them enter it, you know, to, they know that. They know, John, and they know, you know, but they were so little when he passed and to know that like we're doing something in his memory and you know, that particular event in their grandmother's memory, and it's just a way to kind of honor you know, that person that's not here with us anymore. And give them you know, you know, they know that we do lymphoma is a loser because of John. They might not remember, you know, any specific memory. But they know that they know why we do it and have met other people who have had, you know, cancer and things like that is, it seems like you know, if you have no one person, then all of a sudden it's like, oh, or once is a primary part of your life, then it seems like it's everywhere. And it's on every television show. And it's you know, all your friends have gotten diagnosed and you know, our close circle of friends abnormally close, these people that have been friends since high school, there's like 20 of them. I'm like, How are you guys still friends, but there's three of them, you know, including John, who have had, had had cancer, you know, John, of course passed and then two of our friends have also had breast cancer. And so it's just kind of crazy to it's good to show the kids to make something good out of what has happened in your life, I guess, is where it took me a long way to get there. That's

Keith McKeever 38:29

yeah. Yeah, it's good to to get them involved and give back. And, anyhow, that cancer thing. It's something that, you know, unfortunately, all of us are going to be affected by it in some small way in our lives. It's just, I mean, there's so many different forms sikat so many different ages. I mean, it's just like, you know, a lot of other other medical issues out there too. Like, you know, people have medical issues where humans. Mm hmm. So, you know, let's put a smile on people's faces. Yeah. dark times. Yep. So Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. It's awesome to hear what you're doing. You got the website, scroll to the bottom lymphomas, loser, calm. And in To recap, you've got the golf outing, and you've got the, the, as you call it, the bras for tatata tatata. Okay. All right. I think I have another event there. But got those coming up this year. So go check out your Facebook page and you got an Instagram. I'll have all those in the YouTube description so people can go find it hurt, he can look you up, like follow and subscribe to what she's doing. So you know, when these events are coming up, and when she needs some help.

Stacie McCormack 39:44

Yep, there will be no question as we get closer we'll be we'll be well you will. You'll hear about something different. As we get geared up, get geared up for the events and can start showing sneak peeks of some of the purses that we've gotten donated or Few that we've purchased and things like that we like to, to let people know what their what they're going to be able to take a look at.

Keith McKeever 40:08

A little bit of interest. Yeah, whatever the purses are. I mean, I'm not Yeah, I ran them off a bunch of names. I've heard of them but doesn't doesn't mean anything to me. But I don't mean something to other people.

Stacie McCormack 40:19

It does. It does. Yes. It does mean something to other people.

Keith McKeever 40:22

I know. I know the Louis Vuitton. Yeah. Like other than that I would be lost. I couldn't pick out Yeah, any of them in a pile. So in sadly,

Stacie McCormack 40:31

we don't get a lot of Louis Vuitton here in central Illinois. Right. I mean, I don't know. I don't think people I don't think that's one that people donate too often. But that's okay. We like I said, we get a lot of gently loved coach and Michael Kors. I'm gonna keep naming names until you're like, Oh, I know

Keith McKeever 40:54

that. I've heard of them. And they don't have to be named brands.

Stacie McCormack 40:57

Like we know we have things that aren't aren't named brands either. So if there's you know, just things that are, you know, look cute or have we just saw some this week that is being donated spoiler alert, sorry, Kim. She, she's the one who found out but like canvas tote bags that have like a Jeep on them. So like, it's it says, like, Girl or something like that. So, you know something else? That's um, it's not necessarily geared toward you know, it's not a name brand, but it's a handmade, you know, a handmade bag that

Keith McKeever 41:32

will still like it and still have a use. Yeah, yes. Yes. You got bags laying around that are not that you're not using they're gently used. Also get in touch with Stacy's Spring.

Stacie McCormack 41:41

Spring cleaning, be cleaning out those closets. They take donations at three. We have actually four places Illinois cancercare out on route 91 will take donations for us. Timeless treasure market and Metamora blush studio and he's Curia and then Riviera tan in Pekin There you go. Or if you own another shop that you would like to be a collection site.

Keith McKeever 42:09

There we go. It's good. That should cover just about all the basis of what you're doing. So it's it's awesome to see that you're doing something in you know, in your husband's name and, and doing something to put a smile on people's faces and, and doing it right here in this area affecting the people that we you know, live all we all live next to. Yeah, and he's our friends or neighbors or colleagues and everybody so I appreciate you stopping the show and sharing with us.

Stacie McCormack 42:34

Yeah, I appreciate you having us. This is an exciting thing. I I'm looking forward to seeing who else you get to talk with and see what else is going on. Right here in our backyard. As am

Keith McKeever 42:45

I always excited. It's you know, what's better than knowing what's going on in your own community. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Once again, appreciate it, Stacy.

Stacie McCormack 42:54

Thank you.