ComedySportz-Portland joins Gilda's Club of Seattle in a fund and consciousness-raising event at Microsoft in September, 1998.  At right, our team poses with Microsoft's Susan Rucker and Anna Gottlieb from Gilda's Club of Seattle (in white).
	Daria from KNRK (also Mike, ex-KNRK) and Dan DePrez from Willamette Week hide among our dedicated group at the Joyce Foundation Fundraiser, October, 1997.

Oregon Food Bank:

Your admission to any ComedySportz show can be reduced by $1 when you bring a can of food for the Oregon Food Bank. This program began in 1994; Our 2000 donations totalled over 20,000 pounds of food!  And we raised over $2100 for the OFB at our National Tournament in 1999, while continuing those weekly food barrels. See our show, laugh a lot, help some folks put food on the table! Thank you, CSz fans!

Schools

ComedySportz's Patrick Short MC'd Auctions for Alameda School and the  Portland Tillamook Co-op Preschool this spring, helping raise $40,000 for Alameda and $14,500 for Tillamook.

We're also involved in many school fundraisers each year - including helping state 4A Baseball Champs Lakeridge HS earn dough for their uniforms.  We donate gift certificates to over 100 school and charity silent auctions each year, representing about 600 audience seats  at CSz shows every year.

Doernbecher Children's Hospital Foundation

ComedySportz's Patrick Short hosted the Heart of Doernbecher Auction for the second straight year on October 16, 1999,  helping raise $200,000; part of the money was suddenly raised in cash when Mr. Short threatened to read original poetry unless diners coughed up at least $100.  They coughed up $514, which was matched by ComedySportz!

ComedySportz's Ruth Jenkins, Merrily Jackson, Kent McCarty and Patrick Short appeared September 19th, 1998,  as part of the Heart of Doernbecher Auction Spectacular at the Portland Marriott. Guests raised more than $144,000 for the Oregon Health Sciences Foundation. 

High School Leagues:

ComedySportz Portland is hosting, teaching and operating ComedySportz High School Leagues. Our 2001 season is underway. Contact us at 236-8888 to get involved, or e-mail us.

ComedySportz High School Leagues teach improv and theatre skills, teamwork, focus, listening, acceptance and fun.

We can also arrange for a preview visit to your school.

Gilda's Club:

ComedySportz Portland's Patrick Short and Ruth Jenkins with Joanna Bull, Founder and Executive Director of Gilda's Club

Gilda's Club is a resource club for folks with cancer and their families, named after the late Gilda Radner, and it's also the national charity for the Comedy League of America. Gilda's Club is a place of healing, hope and support for people living with cancer and those who love them.  Each February, we do benefit shows in our own cities. On February 13, 1999, CSz-Portland raised $1236 for Gilda's Club of Seattle. On September 4th, 1998, ComedySportz and Gilda's Club of Seattle produced a fund-raising show at Microsoft, Redmond, WA. Gilda's Club of Seattle purchased their clubhouse in early 2001! Here's the Gilda's Club of Seattle website!

Help a worthy cause, support Gilda's Club

Cancer411.org:

On October 16 and 17, 1998, ComedySportz-Portland and the West Coast All-Stars, featuring Jeff, Gary and Ann Kramer, raised $1600 for the Joyce Foundation, a cancer information resource. This was our second annual Joyce Foundation Benefit - we raised nearly $1400 in 1997. In 2000, ComedySportz-Portland donated $1000 to Cancer411.org, the new name of the Joyce Foundation.

The Joyce Foundation / Cancer411.org was established in the memory of a truly remarkable woman - Joyce Kramer - whose fight with cancer ended in December of 1996.

During the course of her illness, she - like virtually all cancer sufferers - put her faith and trust in her oncologists. It was they who would decide the regimen she would undergo. Unfortunately, medical doctors must spend countless hours treating patients, and simply cannot be expected to be aware of every drug, every clinical trial, every form of treatment available everywhere in the world.

What happened to Joyce is what happens to almost all cancer patients. If her doctors knew of just the right combinations of drugs, treatments, etc., they might be able to save, or at least prolong, her life. If they did not, she would die.

As Joyce's condition worsened, and the treatments she received continued to fail, we asked her doctors, and others, if there were any other possibilities, such as new drugs or clinical trials we could try. They were all outstanding doctors, and made an attempt to help us, but they were unaware of anything that might work.

It was at this time that we - lay people, but very knowledgeable in the area of communications and the internet - began our search. After an extended and frustrating period of time, we managed to locate literally dozens of clinical trials that were possibilities, but the description of each was written for the medical profession, and therefore, virtually indecipherable to us.

We were fortunate enough to have a doctor working with us who translated the information into "plain English," and we discovered that there were one or two trials that seemed to offer great promise to someone with Joyce's exact profile. Tragically, by the time we found these trials, it was too late. Joyce had become too weak, and succumbed to the disease.

Our goal is to see to it that cancer patients no longer have to suffer and die due only to the lack of knowledge of help that is readily available.

Our mission at the Cancer411.org is to turn cancer patients and their loved ones into educated health-care consumers. We intend to gather all the information available concerning cancer treatments - their availability, cure rates, side effects, conflicts with other treatments, contact personnel, etc. - put it into a database in laymen's terms, and make it available at no cost to anyone who needs it.

No one should ever again have to say, "If only we had known..."

www.cancer411.org

For more information on specific ComedySportz services, or to receive our On-Line Newsletter, please fill out our information request form.

ComedySportz Portland is a member of the Comedy League of America,
with teams in 25+ US Cities, and a member of the National Comedy Theatre.
Help end hunger. Support your local Food Bank.

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Site Last Updated December 15, 2001

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