Yesterday was a great day for all the delegates. Stefanie Spielman gave a very emotional and inspiring keynote about her cancer story. This morning we are having yet another great set of speakers. From The Ohio State University, Dr. E. Gordon Gee, from CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and from U.S. News and World Report, Dr. Bernadine Healy.

In the tracks yesterday Doug was talking about what an incredible person Dr. Gee is. Especially with the tragedy that his family has gone through over the last two weeks. More can be found about his family here.

Again today’s session will be streamed for all to watch. mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/filmvideo.wmv

Just wanted to share a few photos from Day two of the Summit. The last photo includes a few of us jammed into a van so we could make it back to the hotel in time. It has been a great day thus far today, and we are about to head to the Columbus Zoo here in a bit.

I wanted to share one funny story from today. A few of us traveled with Lance to some of the track break out sessions. In one of the classrooms, Lance leaned over to Doug and said, “This is the closest I have ever been to a college classroom.”

I have many more stories from today, and I will share another inspiring one tomorrow when we get the photos together. So enjoy all the photos from Day two.

Good morning from day three. Last nights keynote by Dr. Harold Freeman, was very inspiring and touching. He shared with us that he wanted to become a Major in the LIVESTRONG Army. Lance was eager to have him join along in the fight.

This morning’s keynote will be from Stefanie Spielman. I am looking forward to how cancer has touched her life. Today will be yet another busy day, with tracks running concurrently. There will be no keynote this evening, as we are all headed to the zoo for a group dinner.

Hopefully I will be able to share some stories from today’s tracks before we leave for the zoo.

Follow the link below to see this mornings keynote from Stefanie Spielman.

mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/filmvideo.wmv

Well we are half way through the first day and this being my first Summit, it has been quite the experience. This morning Dr. Carmona gave a very inspiring and entertaining speech outlining how he has kept up with Lance, and a very broad overview of his and the three other Surgeons General plan for a National Call to Action. Lance also was quick to give everyone there a quick grammar lesson on Surgeons General as opposed to Surgeon Generals.

The energy level was high, and everyone was eager to get into tracks and begin learning. I spent the morning bouncing around walking all over the Ohio State University and listening to people, and meeting even more people. I was able to snap a few photos here and there as well. This evening Dr. Harold Freeman, from the Ralph Lauren Center, will be the keynote speaker. I have heard him speak several times, and each time is that more amazing.

The campus is incredibly beautiful, and all the people here have been extremely helpful and gracious. I have talked to numerous people, and I am in the midst of composing pieces together to hopefully tell a better story. I know everyone has been busy, and engaged with all the tracks. The sea of yellow that has over taken the campus is a great sight. The tracks are finishing up, and we are all headed over to Mershon Auditorium to see Dr. Freeman.

If you would like to watch his keynote, the link is below.

mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/filmvideo.wmv

Photos from yesterday and today will be added later this evening. So please check back later.

What a great scene last night from the Presidential Town Hall. The entire Mershon Auditorium was packed with everyone wearing “Vote Yellow” T-shirts. A lot of hard work went into the town hall, and it was great to be able to be a part of it last night. Hopefully people were able to catch the live stream, but unfortunately if you missed it, we do not have the video available.

This morning at 8:30am EST, Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States, 2002-2006, will be addressing the LIVESTRONG Summit. Care to see what he has to say? The live feed will be available. Again, these are just live feeds, and we will not be saving the files for later viewing.

I am looking forward to a busy day meeting with and hearing from as many Summit delegates as possible, and I will be checking in throughout the day.

mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/filmvideo.wmv

Tonights Presidential Town Hall with Lance Armstrong, Paula Zahn and Senator McCain will be streamed live for everyone to watch. The feed should go live around 6:30pm EST. Tune in to see what Senator McCain’s cancer plan is.

mms://streaming1.osu.edu/wmtencoder/filmvideo.wmv

On both NIGHTLINE and Good Morning America, ABC has been erroneously reporting that Lance is going to endorse Senator John McCain tonight at the LIVESTRONG Summit. This is incorrect and we wanted to set the record straight.

As anyone knows who has been touched by the disease, cancer is a nonpartisan issue. It affects Americans equally no matter your political affiliation. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) is prohibited from endorsing candidates for public office. We reach out to all elected officials on both sides of the aisle in our efforts to make cancer a national priority.

The LAF invited BOTH presidential candidates to the LIVESTRONG Summit to allow each of them an opportunity to share their plans for how they would address cancer - a disease that will kill 565,000 Americans in 2008 - if elected.

We are pleased that Senator McCain accepted our invitation and will address our members tonight. While we are disappointed that Senator Obama did not accept our invitation, we are hopeful that he will address this issue during the coming months of the campaign.

Team Livestrong was welcomed by an incredible Iowa summer morning on Wednesday as we crawled out of our tents outside the gates of Iowa State University in Ames. Cool temperatures and sunny skies were a welcome change after a couple of warm and stormy days. The route for the day proved to be arguably the toughest of the week - 75 miles of constant rolling hills into an unrelenting headwind. Fortunately, there were towns every 6-10 miles, per usual, that were fully prepared to refuel riders with an array of home-cooked goods. I am certain that a few teammates and a piece of Shoo-Fly pie in Albion sustained me to the finish.

As our team rolled into Tama-Toledo one-by-one into the evening, I met one of our riders named Kelm. He lives in Iowa and is 18 months out from being diagnosed with a rare form of nasal cancer. Like many people diagnosed with cancer, he received varying opinions about how and where to be treated. A friend of his had referred him to the Livestrong website and it was not long before he received a survivorship notebook. Something he read in the book helped him make the difficult choice about where and how to be treated, a decision which may well have saved his life. Kelm couldn’t thank me and the rest of our organization enough for the support and help we provided to him. It is a tremendous honor to work at the LAF and to have an opportunity to affect peoples lives - an honor that is really brought to life when you meet someone like Kelm in person.

3 days to go for the rest of Team Livestrong until they reach the Mississippi! This morning, a few of us slogged our way to Des Moines to catch a flight to Columbus for the Summit. Here’s hoping the rest of the team avoids the rain. I look forward to hearing the stories when they all arrive victoriously at the finish. Cheers!

With the LIVESTRONG Summit and Town Hall starting tomorrow, I thought I would give the loyal blog readers a brief background about who I am and what will transpire over the next few days.

First off, I am Brian Howe, the Web Editor for the LAF and along with Jeff Manning, we are the web team. I am the person behind the scenes creating the webpages you see both on livestrong.org and the blog. I also create most of the web graphics, send out 90% of the email you get from us, as well as approve all the comments to the blog. Our plate is always full with new and fun things the LAF is doing.

I have been working for the LAF for roughly a year, and this is the first time I have gotten to travel, and write about what we are doing. So over the next few days, come along for a journey of how I spent my time in Columbus and at the LIVESTRONG Summit.

This morning while standing in line to go through security in Austin, a lady standing in line with us mentioned that recently her LIVESTRONG wristband broke. Of course whenever I travel, I have a few extras in my bag and gladly gave her a new one, which she promptly placed on her wrist, and said thank you for all y’all ( we are in Texas remember ) are doing.

We had to switch planes in Dallas and while we were waiting in line to grab a bite to eat, Ed Hammer introduced himself and said he too was on his way to Columbus for the Summit. I guess its all the yellow and LIVESTRONG schwag Brendan Burns, Sue Potts, and I had on that people know we work at the LAF. I have a feeling there will be many more instances of people coming up and talking to us, which we truly enjoy.

It is overwhelming to see the various Facebook status updates from all the people that are headed this way or are already here. I am excited to be able to attend the LIVESTRONG Summit, and keep checking back as I bring you updates from Columbus.