this is life in austin & aspen

[UPDATE] Local McDonald’s owner/operators raised over $10,000 to support the Komen Austin Affiliate and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) of Central Texas. A check was presented by McDonald’s Owner/Operator Allen Benton to LLS Board President Gary Thompson and Komen Austin Executive Director Christy Casey-Moore each with a check for $5,250.

Forget breast cancer awareness, what about brain cancer? Or Leukemia & Lymphoma? OK, don’t forget breast cancer awareness, but consider these other cancer-awareness and fund-raising initiatives happening around Austin this month.

MickeyD’s

Now, I’m not a proponent of McDonald’s. Perhaps you can have their coffee. Maybe a salad. Nothing else, really, would I eat there. BUT I don’t discriminate for other people, so if you enjoy a Big Mac, you might as well go on Friday and donate money to a good cause. Local owner/operators will host “Dine-In and Drive-Thru” fundraiser initiative to raise money for Austin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Central Texas.

For the third consecutive year, McDonald’s Central Texas will donate ten percent of all sales on Friday, October 14 between 11a and 2p at 68—that’s SIXTY EIGHT—area McDonald’s to the local affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) of Central Texas.

“The McDonald’s family is privileged to support the Komen Austin Affiliate and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Central Texas,” said Dan Kinney, McDonald’s Owner/Operator and president of the Central Texas McDonald’s Owner /Operator Advertising Co-op. “It’s through community efforts such as this that we’re able to do our part and help make a difference in the lives of children and adults battling cancer. One of our fellow McDonald’s owners is a breast cancer survivor so this is an especially important cause for us.”

Hawktober with Floyd’s 99

Floyd’s 99 rock n’ roll barbershops will be giving mohawks away for free every Monday during the month of October to anyone willing to sport a mohawk to help raise awareness of brain cancer. Hey, even I’ve had a Mohawk before (Lots of Elmer’s glue, and later, lots of shampoo)!

Matt Cotcher, a local brain cancer survivor, enlisted Floyd’s 99 to help organize the event. While this is the first Hawktober ever, similar events are being simultaneously organized in other cities as well. “The movement is quickly gaining traction,” says Cotcher, a former Austin sports announcer who had surgery to remove a racquetball-sized tumor wrapped around his brain stem. “By the end of the month there will be guys from New York to San Diego that will ‘rock a hawk’ in our first year.”

The American Brain Tumor Association estimates that more than 60,000 primary brain tumors will be diagnosed in 2011. Men, Movember is coming up, might as well start with Hawktober!