A Message from Heather
Menzies Urich
I’m writing to tell you a little about The Robert Urich Foundation for Cancer Research and Patient Care. I told someone recently that spearheading The Robert Urich Foundation gives me energy. In that respect, it’s much like every priceless day I spent with Robert. As anyone who knew him will tell you, he lived each of those days to the fullest, putting more into his brief time on this earth than most of us could fit into 100 years. One couldn’t help but be energized in his presence.
There’s a vital purpose to the work we’re doing with The Robert Urich Foundation, which supports research and treatment programs nationwide. We started the still existing Urich Fund for the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center during Robert’s treatment, knowing then that research was so important, and that for rare cancers such as sarcoma, much of that work relies on private funding. I started The California based Robert Urich Foundation so that I would have a more hands on approach to the events that we produce.
With each advance made in sarcoma research, I become more hopeful that some day other families won’t have to endure the nightmare ours faced. The Robert Urich Foundation is already at work benefiting scientists, patients and their families. That was our goal from the start, and I have no doubt that Robert would be both tremendously proud of the progress we’ve made, and impatient to do more!
That’s where the Robert Urich Memorial Golf Classic & Dinner Gala made such a difference. In 2002, over $400,000 was raised in one weekend for The University of Michigan at these combined events. Although I’ll admit it was tough to see the words “Robert Urich” and “Memorial” together, and to see so many of my husband’s cherished golfing buddies on the course without their friend, I was so proud of the effort and the result. We all felt Robert’s presence throughout the weekend, urging us to keep going.
That was the motto Robert lived by: never give up, and never stop looking for the cure. The best tribute we can pay him is to make our next event an even greater success. I hope you will help us.
Thank you  |