Beardos at Dreamforce
Donation protected
Nik Panter and Jared Miller, both known and respected members of the Salesforce community (and four time Salesforce MVPs) have a hairy treat in store for Dreamforce this year...
Nik's Story
It started with a Facebook post...
It was simple, innocuous status update. "So...A poll...I haven't shaved in 4 weeks. If I continued to not shave until October 13th, when I could do a public shave for cancer charity. Would there be any interest in seeing this amongst my friends and fam?" I mused back in mid May, just to see the reaction I would get from such folly. I got a few "No" responses (of whom I believe were secretly paid by wife to say so), some others stating I should also not shave my follicle-challenged head as well (this was not ever going to happen). But then my dear friend, and long time colleague in this world we call 'Salesforce-land' made a simple comment. "I’ll donate $500"...
A Family History
In my family, death certificates are an afterthought, not because we all one day have one written with our names on it (as wel all do), but because it almost exclusively has one definition for cause. And that is cancer. Many have survived battles with the well known variants; lung, heart, breast, brain. But my family has also has drawn the bill of more infrequent and lesser spoken of versions as well, such as colon, pancreatic, liver and neuroendocrine cancers.
Over the last seven years, this has struck deeply to me, taking first my grandmother (whose Doctor explained it would be easier and much shorter to explain the parts of her body that weren't riddled with cancerous cells) . Then four years ago, my mum succumbed to neuroendocrine cancer. She was 53. She had me as a child herself, and never got the chance to see her grandchildren (of which we had made her one before turning 40) graduate high school, get their first jobs or even marry. And then last year, one brisk morning in September my grandfather, the closest man I had to a father, succumbed after multiple battles to cancer, this time focusing on his lungs. In a very short period of time, the three most important people to me growing up were snuffed out by the disease with multiple names, and one common theme; cancer.
That magic moment
I thought about ways I could possibly help spread awareness and hopefully raise some money towards cancer research. My children had both courageously grown their hair out and cut it for the local “Cuts for Cancer” programme where wigs are made for patients. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have as much of that as I did in my youth. And then the Dreamforce idea came to me. For those who don’t know, Dreamforce is the Mecca for Salesforce users, developers and partners that is held annually sometime between September and December of each year. The first year I attended, there were 5,000 attendees. The number now exceeds 100,000 and pretty much devours the city of San Francisco for five wonderful days. And with that, I thought and pondered, and then finally posted. And here we are today….
Jared's Story
Unfortunately, lung cancer seems to run in my family. My grandmother and grandfather have passed away from the disease and recently, it was my little sister. Most people are shocked when they hear that my little sister died from lung cancer. In the blink of an eye, my priorities in life were changed and helping to support my family, care for my sister and spend time with her took over. My sister Jillian was a vibrant, health conscious, active young professional working as an RN at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s NeuroSurgical Intensive Care Unit. In addition to working full time, she was pursuing her master’s degree in Acute and Adult Care. At the pinnacle of her life, Jillian received an unexpected diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer. Less than 1 year later she passed away. Young. Active. Healthy. This disease - and cancer in general - has taken too many people from us. I am so very lucky to have found a community that is so understanding to allow me to do this and support us in this event.
Nik came to me with this idea - shave our beards for a charity and I was thrilled that his idea was to donate to Jillian's Dream. The scariest thing to me about lung cancer is how many young women are lost to this disease every year. It isn't the disease we think it is and we need to raise research money to help change our futures.
Beard background
I have no idea why I started growing a beard, maybe it was for this moment and idea that Nik had! But, I can't think of a better reason to shave it all off! Thank you all for your support! Check out some of my pictures along the way!
...coming very soon...
The Beardos at Dreamforce
So, the premise here is simple. Jared and I will shave our beards at Dreamforce, and the craziness that is our beards will come to an end (or does it?....keep reading). To answer all the questions you may have, hear’s a little Q&A Session:
Q: Where will the money go.
A: All profits raised will be donated to Jillian’s Dream, the nonprofit association named after Jared’s sister, and run by their parents. The organization is based out of Orlando, FL and is part of Uniting Against Lung Cancer.
Q: When will you do the deed? And Where?
A: It will be either the second last or last day at Dreamforce. Due to the fact that we are cutting hair off, we may need to call on a local barber, but we will definitely let people know when and where. If we can find some place a little more public, fellow MVP Cheryl Feldman has offered to wield the clippers.
Q: Why did you wait until four weeks prior to Dreamforce to announce?
A: To be honest, for no particular reason except that we wanted to save the best fundraiser for last…
Q: What’s this or does it comment really mean? Are you holding something back?
A: Well, yes - we will be doing the shave at Dreamforce whether we raise $7.50, $75 or $750. However, if we raise $75,000 dollars, we will hold a quick event to thank everyone (once again, somewhere...to be determined), and we will set the date of September 18th, 2015, the last day of Dreamforce 2015, as the date we will return to San Francisco to remove the beard. Yes, you read that right. $75,000 leads to eleven more months of the Beardos.
Q: Are your wives ok with this?
A: Stephanie (Nik’s wife) and Amy (Jared’s wife) are the most awesome people in the world. And hopefully if we say that enough, the ever growing hair on our chins will simply that much more endearing!
Q: Are you guys insane?
A: I can't speak for Jared, but my name is Nik Panter...you haven’t heard?!?
Some Pics of Nik along the way...
The picture that went along with my Salesforce post, April '14
At the Ottawa Race Weekend 5K with the family, May '14
Me and Mike Gerholdt, MVP Summit 2.0, June '14
Playing with lights - Bluesfest, July '14
Goofing around while shopping, August '14
The beard - it scares me! September '14
Pics of Jared
Jared looking (almost) cleanshaven!
Jared with the holy grail of hockey!
Jared cheering on his beloved Bolts with an ever growing beard (and Amy).
Jared getting ready for soccer (or the next Viking attack!)
Jared hanging with some of the best people around - Shawna Wolverton, Shannon Hale and Mike Gerholdt!
Nik's Story
It started with a Facebook post...
It was simple, innocuous status update. "So...A poll...I haven't shaved in 4 weeks. If I continued to not shave until October 13th, when I could do a public shave for cancer charity. Would there be any interest in seeing this amongst my friends and fam?" I mused back in mid May, just to see the reaction I would get from such folly. I got a few "No" responses (of whom I believe were secretly paid by wife to say so), some others stating I should also not shave my follicle-challenged head as well (this was not ever going to happen). But then my dear friend, and long time colleague in this world we call 'Salesforce-land' made a simple comment. "I’ll donate $500"...
A Family History
In my family, death certificates are an afterthought, not because we all one day have one written with our names on it (as wel all do), but because it almost exclusively has one definition for cause. And that is cancer. Many have survived battles with the well known variants; lung, heart, breast, brain. But my family has also has drawn the bill of more infrequent and lesser spoken of versions as well, such as colon, pancreatic, liver and neuroendocrine cancers.
Over the last seven years, this has struck deeply to me, taking first my grandmother (whose Doctor explained it would be easier and much shorter to explain the parts of her body that weren't riddled with cancerous cells) . Then four years ago, my mum succumbed to neuroendocrine cancer. She was 53. She had me as a child herself, and never got the chance to see her grandchildren (of which we had made her one before turning 40) graduate high school, get their first jobs or even marry. And then last year, one brisk morning in September my grandfather, the closest man I had to a father, succumbed after multiple battles to cancer, this time focusing on his lungs. In a very short period of time, the three most important people to me growing up were snuffed out by the disease with multiple names, and one common theme; cancer.
That magic moment
I thought about ways I could possibly help spread awareness and hopefully raise some money towards cancer research. My children had both courageously grown their hair out and cut it for the local “Cuts for Cancer” programme where wigs are made for patients. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have as much of that as I did in my youth. And then the Dreamforce idea came to me. For those who don’t know, Dreamforce is the Mecca for Salesforce users, developers and partners that is held annually sometime between September and December of each year. The first year I attended, there were 5,000 attendees. The number now exceeds 100,000 and pretty much devours the city of San Francisco for five wonderful days. And with that, I thought and pondered, and then finally posted. And here we are today….
Jared's Story
Unfortunately, lung cancer seems to run in my family. My grandmother and grandfather have passed away from the disease and recently, it was my little sister. Most people are shocked when they hear that my little sister died from lung cancer. In the blink of an eye, my priorities in life were changed and helping to support my family, care for my sister and spend time with her took over. My sister Jillian was a vibrant, health conscious, active young professional working as an RN at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s NeuroSurgical Intensive Care Unit. In addition to working full time, she was pursuing her master’s degree in Acute and Adult Care. At the pinnacle of her life, Jillian received an unexpected diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer. Less than 1 year later she passed away. Young. Active. Healthy. This disease - and cancer in general - has taken too many people from us. I am so very lucky to have found a community that is so understanding to allow me to do this and support us in this event.
Nik came to me with this idea - shave our beards for a charity and I was thrilled that his idea was to donate to Jillian's Dream. The scariest thing to me about lung cancer is how many young women are lost to this disease every year. It isn't the disease we think it is and we need to raise research money to help change our futures.
Beard background
I have no idea why I started growing a beard, maybe it was for this moment and idea that Nik had! But, I can't think of a better reason to shave it all off! Thank you all for your support! Check out some of my pictures along the way!
...coming very soon...
The Beardos at Dreamforce
So, the premise here is simple. Jared and I will shave our beards at Dreamforce, and the craziness that is our beards will come to an end (or does it?....keep reading). To answer all the questions you may have, hear’s a little Q&A Session:
Q: Where will the money go.
A: All profits raised will be donated to Jillian’s Dream, the nonprofit association named after Jared’s sister, and run by their parents. The organization is based out of Orlando, FL and is part of Uniting Against Lung Cancer.
Q: When will you do the deed? And Where?
A: It will be either the second last or last day at Dreamforce. Due to the fact that we are cutting hair off, we may need to call on a local barber, but we will definitely let people know when and where. If we can find some place a little more public, fellow MVP Cheryl Feldman has offered to wield the clippers.
Q: Why did you wait until four weeks prior to Dreamforce to announce?
A: To be honest, for no particular reason except that we wanted to save the best fundraiser for last…
Q: What’s this or does it comment really mean? Are you holding something back?
A: Well, yes - we will be doing the shave at Dreamforce whether we raise $7.50, $75 or $750. However, if we raise $75,000 dollars, we will hold a quick event to thank everyone (once again, somewhere...to be determined), and we will set the date of September 18th, 2015, the last day of Dreamforce 2015, as the date we will return to San Francisco to remove the beard. Yes, you read that right. $75,000 leads to eleven more months of the Beardos.
Q: Are your wives ok with this?
A: Stephanie (Nik’s wife) and Amy (Jared’s wife) are the most awesome people in the world. And hopefully if we say that enough, the ever growing hair on our chins will simply that much more endearing!
Q: Are you guys insane?
A: I can't speak for Jared, but my name is Nik Panter...you haven’t heard?!?
Some Pics of Nik along the way...
The picture that went along with my Salesforce post, April '14
At the Ottawa Race Weekend 5K with the family, May '14
Me and Mike Gerholdt, MVP Summit 2.0, June '14
Playing with lights - Bluesfest, July '14
Goofing around while shopping, August '14
The beard - it scares me! September '14
Pics of Jared
Jared looking (almost) cleanshaven!
Jared with the holy grail of hockey!
Jared cheering on his beloved Bolts with an ever growing beard (and Amy).
Jared getting ready for soccer (or the next Viking attack!)
Jared hanging with some of the best people around - Shawna Wolverton, Shannon Hale and Mike Gerholdt!
Organizer
Nik Panter
Organizer
Tampa, FL