The mission of our organization is to meaningfully engage and unite communities, inspire hope, teach servant leadership, and fund health and research initiatives. Since making national headlines and being featured in the New York Times, ESPN.com, Yahoo.com, Dime Magazine, and hundreds of blogs, ASFL has changed its objective. At first it was to raise money just for one fundraiser. But after seeing how many lives we’ve touched we felt like we had to keep it going but on a much larger scale. CEO Mike Slonina had this to say on ASFL expanding:
“It was crazy, all of the emails I was getting from all over the country and a few even out of the country telling me what I great job I was doing. I’ll never forget this one email I got from this lady in Colorado who lost her sister to brain cancer. She just said how proud of me she was and how much what I did meant to her. This is a woman who had never met me and probably never will, what we do means so much to so many people. That’s really when I fully realized just how much we can do and how far we can go.”
The first A Shot For Life™ fundraising event was a world record setting shoot-a-thon by Mike Slonina. Slonina, although heavily advised not to because of the risk of serious injury, shot basketballs for 24 hours straight raising 17,000 dollars in the process. For a 24 hour chronicle of Mike’s amazing feat copy and paste the link below into your URL and for more information google A Shot For Life™ or Mike Slonina:
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/6798/a-shot-for-life-hour-by-hour
This is a personal cause for Slonina, but it’s a fundraiser that will impact the lives of many. His mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor in February 2010. Thought to be malignant when first detected, her prognosis is now much more optimistic. Too deeply imbedded to safely biopsy her team of doctors will monitor the tumor several times a year for the foreseeable future. As an only child raised by his mother Mike wanted to turn a difficult personal situation into something that has the potential to help others. "I have no siblings so it's always been just me and my mom. At first they actually thought that she might have surgery right away so she canceled all of her photography jobs. She's doing better right now and her prognosis looks good, her next big appointment is in February. This fundraiser is for all of those people whose lives are on the line or are struggling with the uncertainty that comes with having a brain tumor. “
We are still expanding and need more people involved in what we’re doing. If you would like to be directly responsible for saving someone’s life we urge you to get involved. We have a lot of fun at ASFL and the feeling you get from dramatically affecting someone’s life for the better is truly an amazing experience. If you would like to get involved with A Shot For Life™ message Mike Slonina in an inbox or email him at [email protected]
We look forward to hearing from you!
