Thousand Oaks Teen Center  

     1375 East Janss Road

Thousand Oaks, CA 91362

Tickets can be purchased online at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3554811537

More details can be found at:

www.UCAANEvents.org

3/12/2012

For Immediate Release -   Thousand Oaks, CA                                                                                                                                                                                         
 

UCAAN’s “Once Upon a Dream” Fashion Show to Aid Local Cancer Survivors in the Tri-County Area

Thousand Oaks, CA - When you or someone you know has cancer, who are you going to call? UCAAN! United Cancer Advocacy Action Network (UCAAN) is a 501c3 organization that was started in 2009 by local two-time young cancer survivor Rachel Shur, who was diagnosed with final stage leukemia in 2006 and given a 10% chance of survival.

Shur’s experience alone, in addition to losing her father to melanoma when she was a child gave her the drive she needed to found UCAAN – a passion driven organization that provides cancer patients and their families the resources that they need, gifts of hope, inspiration, strength & support, programs, support groups and long term goals for providing financial assistance for patients in the Tri-County Area (Ventura, Los Angeles & Santa Barbara Counties and later expanding to other areas) to pay for the side effects or after effects of their life saving treatments. “While all of the other cancer organizations are focused on raising money for research who’s helping the patients?” Shur asks and responds simply “UCAAN is!” “Research is important and allows survivors like myself to live longer lives – but we are living longer with a worsened quality of life because of these treatments. Patients are calling me daily asking for help to pay for their new medical issues as a result of their treatments, this need isn’t being filled by the other organizations, so I want to focus on this as our primary objective!” says Shur, now 31 and in remission with a new set of health issues due to her life saving treatments.

UCAAN Announces numerous ways for others to get involved and support for their current and future programs including: a Young at Heart Young Adult Cancer Survivor Support Group, a Healthy Eating, Healthy Living Program, Gym memberships, A Young Authors Program, and Future Financial assistance for chiropractic care, dental assistance, and other health issues.  In order to raise the funds needed to provide programs at their new facility in Thousand Oaks; UCAAN needs to raise money and hopes to raise funds at their upcoming “Once Upon a Dream” Fashion Show which will be held on Sunday May 20^th, 2012 at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center from 2pm-5:30pm. Local Cancer Survivors of all ages will be showcasing designs by local businesses and students from Agoura High School’s ROP Fashion design class. This is an event for all ages and there will be food from local businesses offering special whimsical items for sale and some tasting samples. Event details will be available on the UCAAN website as the date gets closer www.ucaan.org  and tickets for the event are $10 for Adults, $5 for children 6 & up and free for children 5 and under. Some family deals will be offered as well! Sponsor & vendor spots are still available!

To find out more information about UCAAN, future programs, sponsorships, donating, vendors or this event please contact Rachel Shur: UCAANorg@yahoo.com or call 805-479-1032.

We are proud to announce our new fun-raising opportunity:UCAAN wants to get as many people involved in not only helping us spread the word about the great programs that UCAAN offers and wants to offer, we also want to be able to allow others to help us raise funds for much needed programs & financial assistance for cancer survivors/patients & their families. In order to work with people from all across the country, we’re proud to announce our “COIN$ 4 Cancer Survivors” Fun-Raising Opportunity.

    Get Your Kids Excited About Helping UCAAN!        
We are inviting Parents to get their kids involved in some exciting Fun-Raising! How do you get involved? Contact us at: UCAANorg@yahoo.com and let us know you’re interested in the program.           

* We will send you an information packet with some material for your UCAAN Donation boxes/containers. (We suggest using an old coffee can)
* Fill out the paperwork and choose the program that you want the funds to go to, you will have the option to select all if you’d like.   
* Each Family would be given a list of possible Fun-Raisers, or they could choose to collect coins from friends and family. 

• Our Healthy Eating Program, where we will offer healthy cooking classes to cancer survivors and their family. But we will also award each cancer survivor with a $35 gift card to a local organic market to purchase their healthy food. In order to offer this program, we would need to raise $75 per patient/survivor. You can raise just that or try to raise more for additional survivors!
• Our Gym membership program, where we would offer a survivor a one year gym membership, the cost for this program is $275/per patient/survivor.
• Our Young Authors Program- where we would invite young cancer survivors or siblings of cancer survivors to join our “Young Authors” program. Each child in the program would work with adult survivors & a trained marriage and family therapist and write their fiction/non-fictional story about the person they know affected by cancer (or themselves). Kids would learn about creative writing and each story would be printed, illustrated by the child and binded. Each Young author would be given the option to make an additional book to leave at our UCAAN Office, for other survivors – young and old to read and enjoy. This program costs $40/child.
• All Programs – Just choose All Programs or Future Finiancial Aid and raise any amount for UCAAN.

All Details About this Program is on our paperwork.

Get Your Tickets Now!!!

UCAAN Cruise

Thanks to a generous donation made by George Thompson Diamond Company in Camarillo, we are proud to announce our 2nd prize: a 14k Gold Ladys Gold Necklace with a Diamond & Pearl Pendant! (Value: $595!!)

So for each $20 Raffle Ticket that you purchase, you have a chance of winning one of these 2 prizes! Plus you get a tax deductible receipt for your donation!

  We’re Only Selling 1000 Raffle Tickets, so the more you buy the better your chance of winning. The odds are better than the Lottery!

Best of All, No Matter what Side of the Country you Live in, UCAAN still try your luck with this Raffle! All Port fees and Taxes are paid for the cruise, all the winner would need to pay is the Transportation/Airfare.

Want to try your luck? For Ventura & LA County Locals: We are selling Raffle tickets at our office:

1459 East Thousand Oaks Blvd, Suite E – Thousand Oaks, 91362

For Out-of-Towners: Call, click the above link and pay through Paypal, email us or Mail a Check to our office address and we will mail you your stubs and a donation receipt.

**Want to Support, but not interested in the prizes? Buy a raffle ticket or two to be donated to a cancer survivor! If you have a friend (who is a cancer survivor) that you know that you know deserves a cruise, we will mail it to them.

Email Us: ucaanorg@yahoo.com    *    Call Us (Rachel): 805-479-1032

Raffle Tickets are Limited!! Only 1000 will be sold, and they will be sold until 3/14/2012 @ 4pm PT/7pm ET or while tickets last (whichever comes first)

The Winner (Do not need to be present to win!) will be Pulled at our Networking at Night Business Mixer on Wednesday March 14th, 2012 – More details to come.

YA group solo flyer

Thousand Oaks, CA - UCAAN is a 501c3 organization in Thousand Oaks that is focused on providing financial aid to cancer survivors and their families in the Tri-County area (Santa Barbara, Ventura County & Los Angeles County). But in order to offer financial aid which is a need that should be filled, UCAAN is looking for sponsors and donors. In the meantime, UCAAN’s focus is providing resources to cancer survivors and their families, giving handmade gifts of hope, strength, inspiration and support, providing peer lead support groups, and healthy cooking classes.

With the New Year, a lot of new and exciting things are coming about. The community is buzzing with all sorts of news, last week, it was the UCAAN grand opening event and this week UCAAN announces its “Young at Heart” Young Adult Cancer Survivor Peer led Support Group! This isn’t the first time for a YA support group to be offered to cancer survivors in Ventura County, UCAAN was also a part of the YA Cancer Survivor Support group started at the Wellness Community last year. But with UCAAN’s Office Grand Opening, they have decided to start their own group!

UCAAN is hosting a Focus Group on Tuesday January 24^th, 2012 at 7pm and is inviting Young Adult Cancer Survivors to attend (ages 18+). UCAAN hopes that after the focus group, they will be able to schedule the dates for the peer support group. Tea, coffee, drinks and snacks will be provided. Attendees are asked to RSVP by calling Rachel Shur 805-479-1032. For more information, questions or comments about UCAAN, please visit their website at www.ucaan.org. or email: UCAANorg@yahoo.com. Sponsorship opportunities are available!

12-21-11

UCAAN – The Little Charity That Could Announces Grand Opening of their New Office!

Thousand Oaks, Calif., December 21^st, 2011 — UCAAN is small and even though they have been an official non-profit for only a year, they have grown and progressed quickly, just like a little engine that could. UCAAN is proud to announce the long anticipated Grand Opening of their new office in Thousand Oaks. UCAAN is inviting the community to come to their grand opening celebration on Wednesday January 11^th, 2012 @ 6pm. The event will be MC’d by B95.1 FM’s DJ Scott Alexander, a representative from Senator Tony Strickland’s office will be presenting UCAAN with a plaque as well! UCAAN will have an official ribbon cutting, tours of their new office space, raffles, appetizers supplied by Fiamme Restaurant, light music and a sparkling cider toast! Also on this day, UCAAN will be announcing their Cruise raffle, valued at $1798; it’s a cruise for two to their choice of Mexico, the Bahamas or the Caribbean. There will only be 1000 raffle tickets sold, and will be available for purchase at the event, at Fiamme Restaurant, The UCAAN Office & through various volunteers. The cost per raffle ticket is $20. The winner will be pulled just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, so try your luck and support a great cause!  

The festivities for UCAAN’s Grand Opening will commence at 1459 East Thousand Oaks Blvd, Ste E- Thousand Oaks, CA 91362 at 6:00pm sharp. Cancer Survivors, patients and their families are welcome. Special Handmade gifts will be given to each cancer patient/survivor or attendee who has lost someone to cancer* (*Supplies are limited) at the event, so please RSVP to UCAANorg@yahoo.com or contact Rachel 805-479-1032.

When people think of cancer, they think mainly of the trials and tribulations that a patient must go through, but many do not realize that even after the cancer is gone there are even more problems for a cancer patient to deal with.

When Rachel Shur was diagnosed with final stage leukemia and given a 10% chance of survival, she had no idea what she would have to face in the future. Shur had a positive attitude through her whole experience and that was what helped her through her initial treatments – the chemotherapy, a drug induced coma, brain surgery, and the total body radiation. She laughed whenever she could, watched funny movies, enjoyed time with friends and when she was told after her stem cell transplant that she was in remission in 2008, she was relieved, but had no idea what she had to face after treatment. The long term side effects, that creeped up on Rachel Shur devastated her and she was unsure of where to go for help. The side effects included early menopause, infertility, degenerative disc disease, herniated discs, severe memory problems and dental deterioration. It was then that she realized that there were little to no resources for financial aid for patients and she came up with the decision to start UCAAN – United Cancer Advocacy Action Network – Your Cancer Resource Organization.

For more information about UCAAN, or the event please contact Rachel Shur at 805-479-1032 or Rachel@ucaan.org  www.ucaan.org  

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors: