What a day. How many times have you said that in your life? How many different ways has it been said and interpreted? I know I’ve said it at some of my lowest lows and my highest highs.

And so today, I find myself at 10:45 AM saying…What a day. For today is one week after Anna Basso would have turned 19 years old. She’d be returning home for the summer after her freshman year in college. Today is about a month out from what will be the 1 year anniversary of her passing away. In many respects it’ll be a lot like the 340 or so days that came before it. A sense of loss and sadness. And at the end, along with several others scattered around the country, when a thought of Anna drifts into my head, I could envision letting out a sigh and then saying – What a day.

However, let me assure you that is not how today will go. Not at all.

For today we launch the 1 Million 4 Anna Foundation. It is real, it is official and it is awesome.

The fight young Anna started in November 2009 gets kicked up a notch today. And we are on a mission. Quite simply Anna’s legacy will be defined by a simple phrase: Winning the fight against Ewing’s Sarcoma today, tomorrow and until it is gone. And win is exactly what we intend to do.

This evening here in Dallas a few hundred of us will join together to officially launch the Foundation. It will be a wonderful celebration of resolve, commitment and caring. Together we will celebrate the strength Anna showed and had deep within her, clearly placed there by her father David and mother Carol, the powerful woman driving this organization down the path towards significance. And when we gather we will not simply speak about what the foundation intends to do, we will share real evidence of what is already being done in Anna’s name.

For the three pillars of the foundation of today, tomorrow and until it’s gone are real and focused. So we will speak of what is already being done to provide support & care for those suffering today. So those in attendance will hear about the creation of Anna’s Closet and an event for Ewing’s Warriors at a recent Dallas Mavericks game.

When the conversation turns to tomorrow, the audience won’t just hear talk about one day providing scholarships to those who are fighting or who have fought through Ewing’s and are going off to college. They’ll actually meet five brave, bold and worthy recipients of this year’s 1M4A college scholarships.

And when it comes time to explain what we mean about fighting until it is gone, they’ll hear from one of the doctors on our medical advisory board, a physician who cared for Anna during her battle and someone well versed in understanding the role well-funded, promising research can play in leading us to a cure to this awful disease.

A way to assure that one day not too far off in the future, a family like Anna’s can hear what used to be a devastating diagnosis and come away with hope. And confidence. And support. And the uplifting spirit that is surely beaming down from heaven with great pride from our inspiration. One Anna Lee Basso.

Although Anna will not be standing in the room tonight, she is certainly not gone. But because of the foundation created in her name, because of 1 Million 4 Anna – one day, Ewing’s Sarcoma will be.

Man, What A Day!

- Mark