In 2014, Bobby Menges sat in a conference room inside a New York City office building and eloquently laid out his pitch to a wealthy donor seated across the table.

Menges was raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as part of a fundraising competition. He was just 16 at the time, but that didn’t stop him from traveling into New York City to take multiple meetings with potential donors over a 10-week period. He was determined to raise as much money as possible for an organization that he believed in.

At the end of the 10 weeks, Menges had collected $95,000. He was named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Long Island Chapter Man of the Year for his effort.

“I think about the image of him sitting with the richest people I can imagine and trying to convince them that he is the one they should give money to,” said Portland Thorns defender Emily Menges about her younger brother. “My brother was so connected and he did so much work through public service, through different foundations, raising money for everything under the sun.”

Bobby’s dedication to community service started at a young age. He was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at age 5, and again at age 10, and his experience drove him to give back. He hoped to help other children that were battling illnesses of their own. While in college at Duke University, Bobby and his fraternity hosted a head-shaving event that raised nearly $75,000 for Duke Medical Center’s adolescent and young adult services.

Bobby’s cancer returned for a third and final time in 2016. He died on Sept. 8, 2017. He was 19-years-old.

It was the day after Bobby’s death that Emily and her family decided to form the I’m Not Done Yet Foundation to support adolescent and young adult patients with cancer and other serious, chronic and long-term illnesses. The family felt that forming the foundation would be the best way to honor Bobby’s legacy.

“I think there’s a huge gap in care for this age group and I know my brother was very passionate about this because he was that exact age group when he was getting most of his treatment, especially the third time around,” Emily said. “I just think it’s such a great way for my family to rally around something so terrible. It’s just a way to harness your negative energy and make it positive.”

The I’m Not Done Yet Foundation has raised almost $700,000 over the last year and a half. With the money they’ve collected, the organization had been able to pledge nearly $1 million to multiple medical centers.

The foundation has donated $225,000 to build an adolescent and young adult space at the NYU Winthrop Hospital Cancer Center for Kids, pledged $500,000 over five years to the Hospital for Special Surgery to fund psychological research aimed at improving care for young patients with chronic illnesses and committed $150,000 to the Duke Cancer Center to form a peer-to-peer program for adolescent and young adult patients and also support a program that pays for harvesting sperm and eggs for patients undergoing fertility crushing treatments. Additionally, the foundation is in the process of donating $25,000 to the Case Western Research Lab for sarcoma research.

With the money donated by the foundation, the NYU Winthrop Hospital Cancer Center for Kids has already begun construction on a space for young adults to spend time while they are undergoing treatment. Emily said that Bobby always felt that this type of space was missing from hospitals. While the hospitals would often provide distractions for younger children -- like clowns, face paint or musicians -- they were lacking a quiet space for young adult patients to simply hang out, charge their phones, do homework or rest. The foundation hopes that the space at Winthrop can serve as a prototype for other hospitals throughout the country.

“We want there to be more of an age-appropriate, coffee shop-like vibe to make them feel more comfortable,” Emily said. “That space was always very important to Bobby. He didn’t have it, but he wanted it.”

Similarly, the foundation has targeted other areas that would support care for adolescent and young adult patients. They are hopeful that the research conducted at the Hospital for Special Surgery will shed light on different ways that they can support patients in that age group moving forward.

“A lot of this stuff isn’t known yet, so it hasn’t even been identified as a problem,” Emily said. “I think that’s going to be a huge first step for us. Once we can look at this research, it will be cool to see what arises and what else we can do.”

As a professional athlete, Emily has played an important role in getting the word out about the foundation and helping to lead fundraising efforts.

Last summer, the Portland Thorns and the club’s Stand Together program offered to match every donation made to the foundation up to $5,000. In December, Emily then hosted a soccer clinic in Long Island for young girls in the area. Many of Emily’s former teammates and coaches volunteered to participate in the event, including NWSL goalkeeper Michelle Betos. More than 100 girls signed up for the three-hour clinic.

The event helped raise nearly $30,000 for the foundation. Emily knew that Bobby would have been proud.

“He would have loved this," Emily said. “He would have been right there with us doing all this stuff.”

You can learn more about the I’m Not Done Yet Foundation by visiting https://www.imnotdoneyetfoundation.org.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

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