posted 10-27-2021 12:17 PM               

Place Your Bid on One of Four Unique 'Inspiration4' Pilot's Watches And Help To Raise Funds For St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

WC Schaffhausen is the official partner of Inspiration4. To support the first all-civilian mission to orbit, the manufacture has designed and donated four unique, space-themed Pilot's Watches. Each of these timepieces represents one of the mission's values of Leadership, Hope, Generosity and Prosperity and carries an engraving of the respective crew members' name. After travelling to space and orbiting the planet at an altitude of 585 kilometres (364 miles), these watches will now be auctioned to raise funds and promote awareness for the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®.

If you want to own one of these unique timepieces, here comes your chance. Three watches will be auctioned online on Charitybuzz, while one piece will come under the hammer at an exclusive St. Jude Inspiration4 Celebration in the Napa Valley, California.

Online Auction Charitybuzz.com

The watches with the names and mission values of Jared Isaacman (Leadership), Dr Sian Procter (Prosperity) and Christopher Sembroski (Generosity) will be auctioned online on Charitybuzz. To place a bid on one of these chronographs, you can register on the platform here.

Bidding will begin on Monday 1 November 2021 at 9 am EST and close on Wednesday 10 November at 3 pm EST. The opening bid for each watch is 15,000 USD.

St. Jude Inspiration4 Celebration

The crew member representing the mission value of "Hope" was Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year old physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® and a pediatric cancer survivor. Her Pilot's Watch Chronograph Edition "Inspiration4" will be auctioned at the official St. Jude Inspiration4 Celebration held on 6 November in St. Helena, California.

Tickets to attend this special vineyard dinner event are available here.

Each Pilot's Watch Chronograph Edition "Inspiration4" will be delivered in a bespoke box signed by the entire Inspiration4 crew. In addition, it includes an invitation for an exclusive, 15-minute Zoom session with the respective crew member - presenting its future owner with a unique opportunity to learn more about this historical mission from one of the four civilians that travelled onboard the spacecraft.

posted 11-01-2021 01:28 PM               

Inspiration4 auction for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to include one-of-a-kind payload items that orbited Earth

Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth last September, included special cargo for a post-splashdown auction, benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Now until Wednesday, Nov. 10, the general public may bid on various payload items, including a space-flown jacket with St. Jude patient art, unique pilot's watches (chronograph edition by luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen), license plates bearing patient art, and U.S. postage stamps featuring St. Jude founder Danny Thomas. Additionally, there will be vacation packages and unique experiences available for auction.

Inspiration4 commander Jared Isaacman selected St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as its beneficiary and committed $125 million to St. Jude to inspire others to raise an additional $100 million to accelerate research on devastating childhood diseases and save children all over the world. Since then, Inspiration4 has secured commitments totaling more than $239 million for St. Jude. The Inspiration4 crew included St. Jude physician assistant and cancer survivor turned astronaut Hayley Arceneaux.

In the words of the Inspiration4 crew, "We are just getting started." By participating in the auction, donors are helping children of today and tomorrow live out their dreams just like Arceneaux, and someday travel to space themselves.

Cancer is a multi-trillion dollar, multi-year problem requiring millions of supporters coming together to solve. Thanks to community support, St. Jude is embarking on a six-year, $11.5 billion strategic plan to triple its global investment to impact more of the 400,000 kids with cancer around the world each year.

Visit stjude.org/inspiration4 to learn more or bid on the items at charitybuzz.com/stjude.

posted 11-16-2021 06:06 PM               

I am glad the auction brought in another $2 million for St. Jude's. That said, I am disappointed the Inspiration4 crew did not (seemingly) fly something that could be shared with the masses (other than the Samuel Adams' "Space Craft" IPA).

It would have been great if they had followed the example of past missions and find a way to share something flown with hundreds, if not thousands of people. I am thinking of the gold stars flown by the Apollo 12 crew, the bookmarks flown on space shuttle missions, or the many medallions made with a small but symbolic bit of metal flown on the mission they honored.