ANNOUNCINGTHE 5TH ANNUAL BERNER-GARDE FUNDRAISER~!
This is what you have all been waiting for ~ it's the 2003 Berner-Garde
Fundraiser.This year, we are doing something a little different to add
a little variety to your lives! Nancy Melone, Berner-Garde Treasurer, has
donated one of the those big stuffed Costco Berners to our fundraiser.
So...we are going to have a .
"NAME THE COSTCO STUFFED BERNER CONTEST!!!"
It's easy to enter your name to win the stuffed Berner, but you must pay a
fee to enter the contest. You can send in as many entries as you'd like.
For every entry, I will give you free tickets for our fundraiser items.
We have two levels of items: The First Tier has 10 items, which are
lettered A through J. If you'd like the tickets for those items, here are
the prices to enter the "Name the Costco Berner Contest" - Entries cost $5
each...or... 3 entries for $10...or...8 entries for $20. The Second Tier
has 87 items, which are numbered 1 through 87. If you'd like the tickets
for those items, here are the prices to enter the "Name the Costco Berner
Contest" - Entries cost $1 each...or...6 entries for $5...or...14 entries
for $10. Just send me a note with your name the Berner entries and tell
me which items you'd like your free tickets to go towards.I also need
to know your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
As an added bonus, anyone who donates $20 or more will receive a beautiful
Berner poem bookmark made by Faith Hopperstad. Thank you, Faith!!!
Oh, and in case you were wondering..all donations to the "Name the
Costco Berner Contest" will go towards Berner-Garde. The Berner-Garde
Foundation was established to collect, maintain and disseminate information
about genetic diseases observed in the Bernese Mountain Dog. It is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt, not-for-profit corporation and donations made to The
Berner-Garde Foundation are tax deductible. The mission of The Berner-Garde
Foundation is to ensure that all Bernese Mountain Dogs have a long and
healthy lifespan of twelve to fourteen years! To accomplish this goal, the
incidence of several serious hereditary diseases must be decreased and,
over time, eliminated. It is the hope of all who know and love a Berner
that the work of The Berner-Garde Foundation will lead not only to an
understanding of genetic diseases in an individual dog, but also in the
Bernese Mountain Dog breed as a whole.
The history of the BMDCA and Berner-Garde is a lengthy one. There has
always been a close working relationship between the two groups. A new
effort is underway to develop a DNA Bank for the storage of Berner DNA,
along with a tissue repository for the breed. Several other breeds already
have a DNA bank. Berner-Garde and the BMDCA already have something like
this with the Tumor bank. But think of it - the tumor bank only has
abnormal tissue, where a DNA bank would also be able to house DNA samples
from all Berners, healthy as well as ones with any diseases. It would
include pedigree and medical history information, too, thus making it much
more valuable to researchers. Genetic research could proceed more quickly
without the need to wait several years for sufficient samples and would
support research into genetic diseases affecting the breed, both now and in
the future. This effort is a joint developmental effort between BG and the
BMDCA. There are still many details to be worked out, and many issues to
resolve. And when it is finally implemented, there will be costs for
storage and processing.
With the DNA Repository in the works and the other Berner-Garde projects,
we need to raise funds to support these efforts to extend the lives of our
Berners. I'd like to make this fundraiser one of our largest ones ever.
Rememberit's "for the LOVE of a BERNER!!!"
Now, you might aks, how can I see all of these wonderful items? It's
easy. Go to the web site that Karen Pickel made for our fundraiser and
you'll see the 97 items and the specific instructions for sending in your
entries for the "Name the Costco Berner Contest." It will be exciting to
see which name will be chosen and that very lucky person will win the HUGE
Costco Stuffed Berner!!http://www.overthefence.com/helpberners/bg/
A BIG THANK YOU to all of the people who generousely donated items for our
5th Annual Berner-Garde Fundraiser. Thanks to Nancy Melone, for donating
our big stuffed Berner, to Faith Hopperstad for donating the Berner poem
bookmarks for those people who donate $20 or more to our fundraiser and to
Karen Pickel for all of her hard work in doing another fantastic web site
for our fundraiser
Joye Neff and Nick (and Ben)
Mt. Lebanon, Pittsburgh, PA
