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Community responds when needs appear
By: Bobbi Patterson
July 12, 2005 - There is an African proverb that says, "It takes a village to raise a child," ...and the "village" of Clay Center and surrounding areas has risen to that challenge again and again.
Consider the case of Meagan Fowles, the 17-year-old young woman recently diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension, and for whom a big fund-raiser was organized.
After diagnosis, she had spent 20 days in Children's Hospital in Denver getting her heart back on track and adjusting to seven new medications. She came home after that, but must return to Denver because she is retaining water around her heart again. Her spirits are okay, but she is having chest pains, and now, in addition to the oxygen she is on 24/7, she also has an IV (intravenous) line for medications.
The fund-raiser started with a telephone call from Meagan's uncle, Junior Charest, to Linda Underwood. Linda has been the "spark" that has turned on the great engine of caring and generosity in this community for a number of years now, beginning with Lanny Siebold back in 1998.
She set into motion a whole number of wheels that have resulted in just over $7,000 (to date) being donated. To that amount will be added incoming funds from both a second on-air auction on KCLY and a large raffle.
When Linda hung up the phone from Charest's call, she immediately contacted Ray's Apple Market to find an agreeable weekend on which to hold a sandwich sale. The Deli Department at Ray's, run by Mike Smith, handles all the food buying and preparation of the sandwiches that are sold for a fund-raiser, deducting only the cost of the food. Linda and Fullington's co-worker, Dawn Bentley, then began calling a long list of volunteers to help make signs for the sale and to sell the food.
"Very often, during a fund-raiser like this, people will look me up and ask to be put on the list to help," Linda said.
Next, she called KCLY, our local FM radio station, to set up a time for an on-air auction. She has found that eight items are the most that can be efficiently auctioned off during a half-hour broadcast. If she can find substantially more items than that, a second auction is scheduled, as was the case with Meagan. That auction was held Friday, July 8th, with a lot of KCLY promotion the previous week.
Linda submitted a story to the Dispatch on Meagan's situation, which ran on the front page, and she wrote, printed and passed around flyers with the schedules of what was going to be held and when, to be put up in prominent places around town.
And finally, she began to accumulate items for the raffle.
"Junior Charest and the other contractors in the area donated a DeWalt 18-volt, 5-tool combination drill and saw kit (worth $680), and a Weber Genesis Silver Series gas grill (worth $600), for the raffle" Linda said.
"Brooks Yamaha of Manhattan, the Citizens National Bank, Trumpp Cabinet and Union State Bank donated a child's battery-run John Deere 'Gator' car that will hold two 3- to 8-yr-old children.
"And finally, on display in Ginger's Uptown window, is a blue-jean backed quilt made by Jessica Backus for the raffle. Everything except the quilt can been seen at Fullingtons Lumber Yard," she continued. "The raffle drawing and announcement of the winners will be live on KCLY at 1 p.m. on July 29th."
(Note: Tickets will be on sale at Fullington's and Ginger's until the day of the raffle, July 29th.)
The funds collected from each portion of a fund raiser are handled through Linda's church, St. Paul Lutheran. Funds are available from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, to match funds raised from a community for situations like this. In most cases, the maximum amount allotted is $500, but in Meagan's case, the maximum was raised to $1,500, and that amount of money has been added to her fund.
Linda has a dozen stories of incredible generosity from all over the community during this fund-raiser.
"On June 23rd, John Anderson of SUNNY 102.5 FM broadcasting from Abilene, devoted his entire call-in show to Meagan's story, raising $1,100 from auctioning Country Stampede tickets to donated fireworks to pledges called in by the people listening," Linda said.
"One 9-year-old boy from Manhattan named Dane Deiter, found a pair of Country Stampede tickets on a golf course, and when he heard John Anderson's program on air, he called and donated them to be auctioned off, even though 'Big and Rich,' one of the lead acts at the stampede, was his favorite and he really wanted to use the tickets himself.
"When our own KCLY staff found out, they decided to send Dane two of their tickets, and Al Blubaugh, who works at KCLY here but lives in Manhattan, delivered them to the boy's door.
"A man named 'Johnny' who is currently an inmate in the Clay County jail, heard the Abilene broadcast. He realized that as a smoker, he was damaging his lungs when here was a girl fighting to take each breath. He decided to donate the amount of money sent to him by his family ($100), to Meagan's fight to save her lungs.
"Don Martin, a farmer from the Broughton area, was the high bidder for an autographed Minnesota Linx No. 3 practice jersey with Nicole Ohlde's signature on it; after paying for it, he gave it to Meagan.
"Dave Foor of KSAL-AM radio in Salina contacted me after reading a piece about Meagan in the Journal, and to date, we have done two "Kansas Live" shows on air, the first one about her and the second a follow-up on her current condition.
"Daily, I get money in the mail for Meagan," Linda continued. "One came in today from Jonesboro, Ark., another from Hays, Kans. On one of the checks, there was a note that said, 'God still answers prayers!'"
Linda's eyes tear up when she is recounting these stories. "People are so good," she said. "We're so grateful to all the volunteers and to the community and the many, many businesses that donated auction and raffle items for all their help. It could never happen, otherwise. It is really a tremendous, concerted effort."
It takes a village...
Web Site Is a Prelude To Glaxo's OTC Weight-Loss Pill
By JEANNE WHALEN
July 12, 2006 - Awaiting approval from U.S. regulators to sell an over-the-counter diet pill called Alli, GlaxoSmithKline PLC has set out to establish itself as an online weight-loss authority, with a Web site that offers dieting tips and collects data and email addresses from consumers who visit.
The move is one of the first by a pharmaceutical company to tap into the vibrant online community that has grown up around the weight-reduction industry. Glaxo's Pittsburgh, Pa.-based consumer health-care unit set up the site, QuestionEverything.com, in April and says its purpose is to offer peer support and professional advice to dieters and to "dispel the many myths about dieting, exercise and fraudulent weight loss products."
QuestionEverything.com doesn't promote Alli: A spokeswoman says Glaxo will create a separate promotional site if it wins approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell Alli in the U.S. Glaxo licensed the U.S. over-the-counter rights to the drug, a lower-dose version of the prescription drug Xenical, which Switzerland's Roche Holding AG continues to market world-wide. The FDA asked United Kingdom-based Glaxo to provide more information about Alli in April. Glaxo says it hopes to begin selling the drug in the U.S. later this year.
Anticipating the launch of a major weight-loss drug, Glaxo is keen to become known as a trusted source of weight-management information, the Glaxo spokeswoman says. And it has another interest in promoting healthy eating, some analysts note: Clinical trials indicate that people taking Alli experience fewer gastrointestinal side effects if they stick to a low-fat diet. Alli blocks the body's absorption of dietary fat, which results in flatulence and other unpleasant side effects. If it is cleared for sale, Alli would be the first FDA-approved OTC diet pill on the U.S. market.
Diet-drug marketing is a minefield, with some popular products tripped up by safety issues and side effects. Wyeth's Redux and Pondimin, which constituted the fenfluramine portion of the once popular fen-phen diet combination, were taken off the market after being linked with heart-value problems, and Wyeth has paid out billions of dollars in legal settlements to users. Other products simply don't work that well.
Marketing experts say Glaxo's site is a way for the pharmaceutical company -- the world's second-largest according to sales, behind Pfizer Inc. -- to test the market and prepare for the Alli launch. That includes gathering the email addresses and ages of individual consumers -- information prized by marketers.
By watching how people use the site and reading the messages they post on its discussion board, Glaxo is likely to learn how to position Alli, says Barbara Bix, a marketing strategist at BB Marketing Plus, Boston, which isn't working on the Alli launch. And by putting the Glaxo name on a site offering sensible advice about diet and exercise, the company is starting a buzz among potential customers, which will be useful once it starts marketing the specific product, Ms. Bix and others say.
The Glaxo spokeswoman says the company may contact Web site visitors, but only after Alli receives FDA approval. Even then, Glaxo says it plans to contact only those visitors replying that they want more information about an FDA-approved product.
Other heavyweights of the diet industry -- Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, the Zone Diet, the South Beach Diet -- blur the line between advice and promotion with Web sites that plug products, offer advice and collect consumer data. An Internet search of the words "weight loss" or "diet pill" results in hundreds of sites and ads pitching everything from miracle dietary supplements to fat-melting hypnosis.
The Internet weight-loss community is one of the most lively to emerge in recent years, as more and more consumers seek health information on the Web. Interest in new drug treatments appears to be especially high. There are dozens of sites devoted to Acomplia, a closely watched obesity drug whose approval is pending with the FDA. The sites, run by third parties and not by Acomplia's manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis SA of France, give updates on clinical trials for the drug and the likelihood of FDA approval. Another site, the Alli Report, published by Medical Week News Inc., tracks news on Glaxo's drug, including the formation of QuestionEverything.com.
Glaxo has pledged to the FDA to promote Alli as part of a program of improved diet and exercise, to help make sure consumers don't form unrealistic expectations of it as a cure-all. The company has tested a similar approach with its antismoking gum Nicorette. A Web site, Nicorette.com, offers tips for coping with cravings, a "dependency quiz" and video clips from "coaches" who help people quit. Other drug companies use Web sites to promote specific pills to U.S. consumers, but they don't usually include such a wide variety of health and lifestyle advice.
The QuestionEverything home page instructs visitors to "question everything you know about weight loss." The Web site features stylish graphics, including drawings of a svelte woman reading a label, and more than a dozen links that readers click to read about portion size, low-calorie cooking or organic food. The site also offers recipes, quizzes and discussion boards where visitors post tips.
Before joining a discussion, visitors must register, giving their email address and date of birth. The site also asks for their first name, ZIP code and ethnic background. The site notes that Glaxo may "send you future communications on one or more of our brands," and that it will "refer to your information to better understand your needs...and how we can improve our products and services." The site itself makes no mention of the brand name Alli or any other Glaxo drug.
An online discussion on weight-loss Web site QuestionEverything.com
The site does make a point of educating visitors about the pitfalls of dietary supplements, such as hoodia and bitter orange. It warns that dietary supplements aren't FDA-approved, which means they aren't held to rigorous safety and efficacy review. The site also instructs visitors how to report problems with dietary supplements to the FDA.
Glaxo has hired a dietitian and a physiologist from the New York Obesity Research Center Weight Loss Program to respond to readers' questions. In one recent exchange, physiologist Richard Weil advised a reader on the relative merits of the Pilates technique versus jogging. In another, dietitian Betty Kovacs answered a visitor's query by posting a recipe for low-calorie mashed cauliflower.
Mr. Weil says he works as a contractor for Glaxo, getting paid a fee for his advice. The physiologist says he sees a close link between dieters and the Web in his New York practice, where patients often bring in printouts from the Internet on weight-lifting or exercise programs.
Mr. Weil praises QuestionEverything for offering readers access to professional advice that they might not otherwise get. The weight-loss tips readers give each other are sometimes "amateur," he adds, but he says the support they give each other is invaluable. "Oh girl...I feel your frustration," one reader recently replied to another complaining that healthy eating habits weren't resulting in weight loss.
Peter Kreisky, a Boston media consultant unaffiliated with Glaxo, says QuestionEverything resembles a "piece of market research to find out about the way consumers talk about weight loss, the language they use and the things they're most concerned about." In particular, Glaxo is probably compiling a list of "key terms" that dieters use, he says. Companies buy "key terms" on search engines such as Google, to ensure that their site pops up at the top of the list of advertised sites.
The Dallas interactive marketing agency IMC2 and the New York office of Arnold Worldwide helped Glaxo create the site. Communispace Corp. of Watertown, Mass., also advised Glaxo on the project.
Write to Jeanne Whalen at jeanne.whalen@wsj.com
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