Northwestern Mutual’s mission is quite a lofty goal: To make the communities they serve the most financially secure in the world. “Given our success here in St. Louis, we’re trying to serve the community from both a client perspective and a charitable perspective,” says Gerard Hempstead, managing partner at the company’s St. Louis network office. His office has a goal of giving at least $500,000 in monetary donations and 5,000 hours of community service before 2015. “It’s actually stated in our vision and we track it,” he says.

SLU RESEARCHERS SCREEN NEWBORNS FOR RARE GENETIC DISEASES

On Saturday morning, June 15, Susie Knopf will join tens of thousands of friends, family, survivors and community members in downtown St. Louis for the 15th annual Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure. A long-term breast cancer survivor, Knopf will be walking in a sea of pink to raise funds and bring attention to the quest to cure breast cancer, the No. 2 killer of women after heart disease. “We are all one for those few hours and each shares a passion to end this dreaded disease,” she says. “Although we have come a long way, breast cancer is still a killer and 40,000 people in the U.S. will die of the disease this year.”

If anybody was destined to have a career in sports, it was Jay Delsing. But Jay decided not hit curve balls or blast penalty kids: He wanted to hit wedges.

June

BRIAN HALL, chief marketing officer for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, has been named chairman of Christmas in St. Louis Foundation, which produces Macy’s Festival of Lights and the Ameren Missouri Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Aubrey Allicock will lift his voice for those touched by cancer at the annual Sing for Siteman concert. Through Stevie Wonder’s If It’s Magic, the Opera Theatre performer will honor his father, a colon cancer survivor, as well as event founder Carol Wong’s father, who lost his battle with cancer. “I don’t know one person who hasn’t been affected by cancer, and it’s such a wonderful gift to be able to help,” Allicock says. 

Big congrats go out to MATT SEITER, bar manager at Sanctuaria Wild Tapas in The Grove. His book, The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars, is one of 10 semi-finalists for Best New Book at the Spirited Awards at the 2013 Tales of The Cocktail, which will be held in July in New Orleans. The list of finalists for the category will be released next month. Good luck!

Autoimmune disorders are insidious. The body’s own protective mechanism, the immune system, turns on itself, attacking healthy tissue and organs by mistake. Lupus is one autoimmune disease that affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans, according to the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA).

A truly great song can break and warm your heart simultaneously. Despite her age—or perhaps enhanced by it—7-year-old cancer patient Arianna has created just that while in the hospital. The opportunity wasn’t a musical miracle: It was Maryville University’s Kids Rock Cancer.

Get close. Closer. Eww, not that close.

MAY

World-class artists are once again coming together for Sing for Siteman, a one-night-only performance to support cancer research for Siteman Cancer Center.

Actor, comedian and star banjo player Steve Martin wowed a sold-out crowd during a performance at last weekend’s Illumination Gala.

Dr. Rajiv Patel is an enthusiast. Yet, though he enjoys a nice glass of red wine, Patel is careful to emphasize that any advice he has to offer is based solely on the data.

“At 91 my mom is sweet, unassuming, loves the Lord and is still as pretty as ever! She still remembers when horse-drawn wagons delivered the milk and when the ‘Laclede Gas Man’ lit the streetlights each night. She is as inquisitive as a child and always makes sure to point out a perfectly blue sky, and then wonder what makes it so blue.”

Belching is a sign of appreciation for a fine meal in some cultures. But it’s not such a positive thing when it’s accompanied by heartburn, coughing and throat irritation—the classic symptoms of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).

Perhaps Sitting Bull said it best: “Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love.”

Story: The Lazara String Quartet has a history as a brilliant classical music ensemble. The four members of the group have achieved world fame and won numerous awards. Now they are on the verge of their biggest triumph: A command performance at The White House that will be nationally televised and seen by 15 million people.

At the age of 26, Ellie Hock has done a lot of things—she’s earned a master’s in speech therapy, she’s done the show-dog circuit, and she’s started her own business: Urban Nectar was the result of a journey Hock took after the death of her mother in the fall of 2011 from brain cancer. We talked to her about how it all got started.

April