Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the state of California.

 

Governor Jim Doyle, Wisconsin

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the state of Wisconsin.

 

Governor David Paterson

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the state of New York.

 

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi

Issued a statement in support of CIRM on Stem Cell Awareness Day.

 

Mayor Gavin Newsom

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the city of San Francisco.

 

Mayor Jerry Sanders

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the city of San Diego.

 

Mayor Kevin Johnson

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the city of Sacramento.

 

Mayor Bob Foster

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the city of Long Beach.

 

Councilman Richard Alarcòn

Introduced a resolution declaring September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in Los Angeles.

 

Chuck Reed

Proclamation of September 23, 2009 as Stem Cell Awareness Day in the city of San Jose.

 

Alan Trounson, Ph.D., President, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

As we watch the calendar advance toward this year’s Stem Cell Awareness Day on September 23rd I urge everyone involved in stem cell research, every patient who already holds out hope that stem cells may help alleviate their suffering, and everyone who is just one diagnosis away from needing what stem cells may one day deliver, to find some way to take note of this special day. Stem cell science is advancing at as fast a pace as it is in large part because of pressure from grass roots campaigns that have created momentum to secure government funds for the research and challenged researchers to think differently about the pace of bringing basic discoveries to the clinic. Stem Cell Awareness Day was created as a way to spread information and excitement about this field and to fertilize those grass roots to keep the pressure on everyone to further accelerate the field. So please, get out and spread the word on the 23rd.

 

James Price, MBA, CEO, Canadian Stem Cell Foundation

The work being done each day in stem cell research labs is critically important to the future of humanity. Science is moving closer to groundbreaking treatments and cures for debilitating and often fatal diseases such as MS, cancer, diabetes, blindness and stroke. All humanity has a vested interest in finding these cures and moving them to the clinic. This is why we're excited to release the Stem Cell Charter (http://www.stemcellcharter.org) on Stem Cell Awareness Day. The Charter is a collective call to action in support of stem cell research. It is a web-based, interactive document that affirms the importance of stem cell science to humanity and articulates five principles relating to how it should be advanced – responsible science, protection of citizens, intellectual freedom, transparency and integrity. But at its core, the Stem Cell Charter is about building a community. A community that will lend their voice, time or other resources to champion the stem cell cause. Join us in celebrating Stem Cell Awareness Day by signing the Stem Cell Charter and moving stem cell research forward, from the labs to the clinics and on to patients whose lives can be transformed by revolutionary new treatments. 

 

Poetry winners

1st place for Haiku/short form

"Stemmed from a Haiku"

Tis’ the day to praise,
The base of life unhazed,
The world in one cell.

Jonathan Lee
The Drew School

 

1st place for long form

“The Non-Terminator”

Stem Cells, Oh Stem Cells,
Endless potentials have you.
The ability to grow and divide,
Self-replicate, reproduce and renew.

Your diversity allows
For any kind of tissue.
To exist and propagate
Without many an issue.

Your Powers of healing,
And of critical repair
Enable our lovers
To never despair.

Then why is it, Oh Stem Cell
That many assume
You’ve spawned from a corpse
Of an ‘evil’ one’s womb?

Where is the common notion
That the public should possess
That you’ve likely come from
A clinic, a cord or another address?

Prejudged and discriminated,
You are misunderstood.
But you dominate survival.
In ways others never could.

You’ve shown the whole world
With genetic programming tech
That differentiation without limit
Should inspire Obama’s next check.

Your struggle, strong Stem Cell
Has influenced me
To live my whole life
With constant potency!

 

Jessica Grubaugh

Purdue University

 

Honorable Mention – Haiku

Pleuripotent, eh
Totipotent takes the cake
Thank goodness for eggs
 

Andrew D. Leavitt, MD
University of California, San Francisco

 

The Stem Cell Awareness Day Poetry Contest entries were reviewed by Don Gibbons, Chief Communications Officer and Ellen Rose, of CIRM along with Melissa Fondakowski and Doug Sipp. CIRM would like to thank Melissa and Doug for their participation and expertise.

Melissa Fondakowski’s work has appeared in several magazines and journals including Many Mountains Moving, Santa Clara Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Blue Fifth Review, as well as in English and Macedonian in Blesok/Shine. A 22-page chapbook of her poetry entitled "Impatiens" was the winner of the 2001 Sow’s Ear Review Poetry Chapbook Competition and was published in 2002. She lives in Oakland, California.

Doug Sipp manages the office for science communications and international affairs at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, a research institution in Kobe, Japan and provides administrative support to a number of international and Asia-regional scientific societies. He is working with scientists in the Asia-Pacific region to launch a regional stem cell research organization. Doug has a degree in literature from Rutgers University.