Blood drive at Chamber

Community Blood Center will hold a blood drive from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 11 at the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, 3122 Frederick Ave. To make an appointment online, go to www.esavealifenow.org and use sponsor code “chambercomm.” You may also contact Natalie Redmond at 232-4461. One donation can help as many as two local hospital patients. Community Blood Center must collect at least 580 pints of blood every day to meet the needs of our area.

Optimist club fights childhood cancer

June is Optimist International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and East Hills Optimist of St. Joseph will help raise awareness about the disease by a Childhood Cancer Campaign. The club plans to put the word out June 20 at local libraries, post offices and East Hills Shopping Center telling of ways to fight childhood cancer.

“Cancer is the No. 1 disease taking children’s lives today, and the effects the disease has on children and their families can be devastating,” club president Harold D. Stewart says. “With this program, we hope to raise awareness of the disease, what these young patients go through and how the greater community can help. And we hope to give these children the chance to truly experience life.”

ThunderRun drives relief for juvenile diabetes

Worth Harley-Davidson North is presenting the Second Annual ThunderRun, a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), on June 13.

The ThunderRun expects to raise $100,000 toward fighting juvenile, or type 1, diabetes, a disease that has stricken 1.4 million children in the U.S.

ThunderRun 2009 will begin at 11 a.m. at Worth Harley-Davidson North, 6609 N. Oak Trafficway in Gladstone, Mo., with a free barbecue lunch. Kickstands go up at 12:30 p.m. for a three-hour Poker Run from Gladstone to St. Joseph to Platte City and ending at the Power & Light District in Kansas City, Mo. At Power & Light, riders will have the chance to win a custom motorcycle paint job courtesy of Ken Smith Body Shop by purchasing a $5 raffle ticket. Riders can register for $30. Registration for passengers is $15. The public is invited to meet the ThunderRun riders at Power & Light to view the bikes and to register to win their own 2009 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, courtesy of Worth Harley-Davidson North.

For more information on the ThunderRun contact Jack Twibell or Jason Williamson at (816) 420-9000 or go online to www.ThunderRunKC.com.

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.