Our Cancer Journey - From GBM to 501(c)3, Canna Creations, and Beyond
Out Mission
Mission: Our mission is to create an online community where anyone touched by cancer can share their experience through their varying art forms. The larger mission is to promote survivorship and life after cancer diagnosis and treatment and remission to end the control that cancer has on our lives.
Our Vision
Our Vision is to be a resource and community for anyone who has been touched by cancer
Our Goals
Our goal is to make sure that no one is left in the dark on any topic or any issue through connections in art as well as connecting in an online community. That there is a place to share art with others who are around the world. We are also dedicated to providing at least one art scholarship a year to a deserving young adult cancer survivor and one art grant for a cancer caregiver
Ending Cancer in Our Generation is an organization promoting awareness and action for cancer survivors and their support circles through the world of art. It is an online community that is for survivors (and their support circles) to connect and share their artwork in all areas. We are striving to put an end to cancer hold on our lives. We are promoting moving ahead with creative endeavors that have been put on hold due to cancer’s affects. It is paired up with the website Jetty’s Brain Book to offer as many resources as possible during their cancer fight. Every year we have a fundraiser to raise money for many different charities. Last years it was I’m Too Young for This! The SAMFund, Spirit Jump and the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope and consisted of raffles, silent auctions of art and a small benefit concert.
Cancer survivorship is an art; and the art of your survivorship is how you choose to get busy living.”
You may be wondering what an art community has to do with ending cancer? Well, you would be right to wonder. Our name came from the title of the first benefit put together before we were a charity, we donated a portion of the money we made to young adult cancer charities, including ones that were fighting cancer. Since we were not a charity yet, the rest of the money went to building Jetty’s Brain Book, which is now our sister site. This site is where you can find resources for fighting cancer and for surviving after your diagnosis. The phrase ending cancer in our generation is a play on words, as we want to end cancer in our lifetime but also in our age group. While we do not actively spend money on research, we are supportive of other charities who are working to find a cure. Our mission is to promote survivorship or life after remission.
We at the Ending Cancer in Our Generation Foundation are promoting the creation of art and expressions of creativity that can aid in both recovery as well as pushing forward after remission. We hope that if our mission rings true in your journey that you will join our community or in our mission today. Remission is not the end; the sunshine, lollipop and rainbow vision some imagine it as. Side effects can stay long after that point and for many even remission is not a calming word.
In this community, we all understand that life doesn’t magically return to normal after remission and we are here to support your creative endeavors as you make that journey. We are a community that is open to all.
We understand completely that it is not only the person who is diagnosed that suffers, worries, and feels pain during this time. It is the caregivers, the friends, the family members, everyone is affected by cancer in different ways and this is your place to talk, share and interact through that time.
This is a safe community where no one’s journey is more important, or justified than another’s. We are a community of respect and appreciation of both creativity and strength. We hope to one day be the place where everyone can go to share and grow through art and creative expression until one day there will be an end to cancer in our generation. If you have any questions at all about our mission, goals, or anything really, feel free to email us. We are happy to answer anything you may be wondering.
Our History
A Letter to you, our community, on our roll out in 2012
While only in formal existence for less than one year at the time of this writing, we have already had an art themed benefit in October 2011. In 2012 we will award our first ever Ram Scholarship for the Arts and we will also publish our 2012 The Art of Fighting Cancer Edition with artwork from all over the world.
As the President of The Ending Cancer in Our Generation Foundation, I would like to offer up a banner of welcome for anyone who has been affected by cancer who would like to meet in an open community to share your arts, thoughts and experiences. We are working hard to be the best community out there to promote survivorship and help art thrive in the world of cancer survivors and their support circles. The ultimate goal is to help one survivor feel a bit more normalcy when it comes to their art and their lives. To be able to complete that project they have been putting off. To make sure that cancer cannot damage every aspect of their lives. This program will be on going each year and if we raise enough funds there will be more than one scholarship or even larger amounts offered.
Ending Cancer in Our Generation began in 2010 with the Silent Auction and Benefit Concert held in October 2010 to raise money and awareness for young adult cancer. It had 51 baskets of donated items and had 4 bands playing including Derrick Hart and Animals Against Cancer and Alexa Wilkinson. This will be an annual tradition to raise money for Ending Cancer in Our Generation as well as other top names in the fight against young adult cancer.
I worked on the Ending Cancer in Our Generation benefit concert and silent auction event, and while it was not a successful event, it did raise awareness in my community and pushed me to form this non profit. With the help of the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope Life Grant, I was able to put on the benefit with no excess loss on my personal part, which allowed for me to form this nonprofit with my personal money. It is my honor to put together the artwork of all you wonderful people who have also been touched by cancer.
Thank you for having faith in our mission and joining our community
Love,
Jetty
The Long and Short of It
We are a group of people who have all been touched by cancer who are all incidentally artists. We want to promote the artwork that comes from the horrible news of a cancer diagnosis and more importantly the life that comes after.
This is a place to promote survivorship. A place where we know full well that cancer doesn’t just come in and out of our lives with a clean sweep. It leaves its dirty, evil side effects for years to come. We understand that remission, while great, does not mean we are cured.
We are here to listen, to help offer resources and to make sure you have a place where you can share your artistic creations. This site is continuously changing and with each new member we have a whole new perspective into the world of cancer. Every survivor is different, so every piece will be a window into their experience.
This site is not only survivors though, it is anyone who has been touched by cancer and who wishes to express it in an art form. We hope that through our scholarship we can help another survivor be able to express themselves through art and continue with their dreams.
Our Fun Plug-in Died and so we no longer have a fun history— For now! This page will be updated again soon!
Updated ‘About Us and Info from our President
We began in 2010 as a way to celebrate my five year cancerversary. I won a fantastic life grant from Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope to hold an amazing fundraiser concert to try to start this nonprofit. This is a massive deal as many times the nonprofit world is highly competitive as grant funding and donors are limited, but Cameron fought for my life grant goal and I produced the coolest concert, where no one showed up. I had over a hundred themed baskets with autographs from everyone from JK Rowling *2010 Rowling when this was highly valuable to everyone* to several cast members of Lost to Chester Bennington (:_( ) and every theme I could possibly devise. I spent months working on the event and when the day arrived we sold less than 10 tickets. We ended up driving around giving away free pizza at the local college after. This was the first of many failed fundraisers, as I was planning on splitting all the proceeds with 4 charities with 4 baskets dedicated to the young adult charities I chose. I ended up making zero money after expenses, not wanting the charities to be empty handed, I ended up winning one basket at opening bid and donating $20 each to the other 3 charities on my own. I took me another 8 months of hard work and struggle to recover enough to start this nonprofit- my original life grant goal.
On July 4th, 2011 we were finally able to file our articles of incorporation and apply to become a formal nonprofit. *-Our documentation area is now housed here on our own server but is fighting single folder access so full page html edits are due. -* All the while I was working on the next annual benefit with the hope that the denied donations that were promised if tax deductibility existed would actually be applied. Our second benefit was half in person and half online. The online portion was relatively successful on eBay earning us our first ever $500 scholarship amount. The in person portion, once again, was not successful. This began a trend to prefer online fundraisers even if they were also not very successful.
Long Story short
Every September we have an online benefit of some sort- usually themed baskets at auction. Most are not horribly successful if proper accounting is applied. However, all help us reach a few more people and every year we are able to help more. In 2023, we have awarded two Kairi Love Caregiver grants and we are excited to see how many more people we are able to help!
We have been doing this for over 13 years now and we have a lot of connections to show for it. We have lost some really great supporters and winners in our history but every day that this site and nonprofit exist we are fighting to make the world a more magical place and strive to help young adult survivors find their footing in their artistic journey.
It is absolutely wild to me that in our time as a nonprofit there has been little to no change in the funding, research, and support for young adults. While we do not have our basis in research and funding we have always been very active in YA support. Offering a scholarship to YA survivors from inception, with the grant following a few years later, an online community available through both Facebook and extensive resources available on the Jetty’s Brain Book site, I have always tried to be as active as possible in this fight for representation and awareness. Even though I have shouted it from the roof tops for over 18 years, even those closest to me probably underestimate how little YA numbers are changing but even worse how GBM is completely stagnant.
As I scan old resources I will update an ‘Interesting Areas’ section below.
My goal in starting this nonprofit was to give young adult survivors a community to network, share and grow in their art. We are finally at the point and I am so excited!
-Jettychan (President/Founder)
Hello!
I’m Jetty! I am a digital artist with a foundation in Fine arts and straight up Art ADHD. I am constantly learning and experimenting in new mediums. I’m very driven and it is my biggest goal to make a difference in the world in the time I have. I am an extreme survivor of Glioblastoma Multiforme and as such every day I am making art is a massive deal. I donate 50% of all of my projects and sales to this nonprofit and I take a $50 a year stipend in order to maintain a “real” business status. You can check out all of my work in the protest community store or on my artwork more particularly at https://jettykircher.com. I am happy to connect with other survivors and can be reached on all social media as well as our contact page.
Our Vendor About Us Moved to Here after Page error
-—-Basic About Us -—-
We are a Grassroots Protest community where vendors Sell Art to Make a Difference
Hello! Welcome to the PRIDE 24/7 365 protest art shoppe for anyone who has been affected by cancer! I will be sharing all my fun pride and other related artwork here for sale. As the founder of this nonprofit and community, I donate 50% of my sales directly back into this organization from my shop and 100% from the official linked shop above which is done outside of the vendor 10% as to not force a high rate on other artists. It has been my goal since inception to provide a grassroots community for artists to come together and make and sell their work. It is finally happening and I could not be more excited to see it grow. It is a lot of work and while I do have some great volunteers working so hard with me now on this community a majority of the work is still on my shoulder so it will take longer to update my inventory for new items. It may take longer to receive customer service or to upgrade the options for stores. I would like to direct everyone to our financials page to see a direct breakdown of our funds, but the
TLDR is we are incredibly small and are just here to make a difference. We have always been and will always be transparent with the use of our donations and all donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
We have a few areas of focus but are now primarily a sticker and small fun items, along with arts and crafts shop. This store is the exact definition of our mission. I am an extreme survivor of Glioblastoma Multiforme. I was told I would need to re learn to walk, talk, might have issues with my vision, hearing, cognitive functioning, etc- and when pressed my family was directly told that I would not be able to make art anymore. To be fair to my neurosurgeon, when one is talking about a baseball sized tumor in the right frontal lobe that controls all those areas, he wasn’t being unrealistic or a jerk. He was being practical since I was in my last semester of undergrad for fine art and he needed them to understand the severity of my situation. Needless to say, I have fought very hard to make the art that I create. It is not easy. My hands shake, my body hurts and my brain struggles every single day, BUT every piece is like a big F U to the medical environment that told me to write my will and give up. By purchasing my art you are also giving a big F-U to letting cancer win and I thank you so incredibly much for believing that this is an important goal to work toward.
We are a loving, beautiful, accepting community but we also understand that cancer is not always pretty. It can be graphic, it can be hard to look at it, but this community is here for all survivors, caregivers and friends to express their thoughts, feelings, and histories even if they aren’t always agreeable. We ask that graphic content get a trigger warning because everyone deserves to consent to look at the art they desire but unless it is specifically against our terms of service, we will not be deleting any artwork from the site without cause.
The views and opinions expressed by members of the site are those of the author and may not necessarily represent those of Ending Cancer in Our Generation. By joining the community you agree to respect others and refrain from causing issues on this site.
