We are writing to you because we know you care about Mary Kroeger and because you would likely be interested in helping to make one of her dreams a reality.  We have been keeping in touch with Mary throughout her battle with cancer, and recently asked her if there was anything she needed or wanted.  She responded that the thing that she wanted most, that would be the most helpful and meaningful to her, would be to get as many copies as possible of her and Linda Smith's book Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding into the hands of caregivers around the world who could really use it to make an impact.

We are therefore writing to request your help in 2 important ways:

1)      Donations to cover the cost (or part of the cost) to purchase and ship one or more copies of the book to worthy recipients.  The book retails for $42.95.  Linda Smith has volunteered to send the books out through her organization (Bright Future).  She can give us a bit of a discount ($38.00), but then has shipping and handling costs, so the total cost for each book donated would be $48.00. This will cover international shipping as most of the recipients we anticipate will be overseas.  Here are the instructions for how to make the donations:

.       Please e-mail Ann B. & Janine (abrownlee@ucsd.edu and  jschooley@projectconcern.org ) and let us know how much you are donating. 

.       At the same time, please send the payment directly to Linda Smith.  Payments should be made to Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre (BFLRC).  Linda can accept Visa and MasterCard payments by fax or phone, or a check by regular mail.  Her address is:

Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre Ltd
6540 Cedarview Ct, Dayton OH 45459
937-438-9458 / fax 937-438-3229

.       If you would like to read information about the book at the publisher's website, it is at: http://nursing.jbpub.com/catalog/0763724815/.

2)      Recommended recipients.   In addition to your financial support, we need you to provide names and contact information (name, title, institutional affiliation, mailing address) and brief rationale, for perspective recipients. The names can be sent, along with the information on your donation, to Ann's and Janine's e-mails.

As you can imagine, this process has the potential to get complicated logistically and therefore we really need to keep it as straightforward as possible, all the while doing what we can to fulfill Mary's wishes.  Therefore, it would be best if you could provide financial resources and/or names, but leave it to us to determine the details, working in coordination with Linda Smith. 

If you are able to suggest more possible recipients than you can pay for, that would be fine, as some other friends may want to donate, but not have recipient names to suggest. Just let us know who you think would be the highest priorities, out of those you suggest.

We need to know how many books we can purchase and ship by January 15th at the latest, but if you could let us know your donations and names and send your contribution to Linda as soon as possible, we can let Mary know what is underway, and start to get the books out to caregivers who can make a difference.

Thank you so very much!  It is actually quite rare that we are given the opportunity to channel our concern for someone we love into something that has this much meaning and potential for good.  Please join us in making a difference in this way, and in helping to make Mary's wishes come true.  Please feel free to send this e-mail on to other friends of Mary who you think would want to participate as well.

Ann, Janine and Ann