Last night was the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night walk to raise funds for blood cancer research. Not only is this where I work, it is an organization that I whole heartily believe in. When I interned at Children's Hospital, I got to see the benefits of LLS to families first hand. Now, I get to help make it happen. Yesterday, I got to bring Light the Night to the children in the hospital. It was an all day affair. We started with taking stars for the children to decorate to hang at the walk site, so those coming out to walk would know that the children were with them. In the evening, we had our own little walk at the hospital complete with balloon release and walk around the oncology floor.
These are a couple of my super star volunteers. I put a call out for Spanish speaking volunteers to help me at the hospital, in case there were children/families who spoke only Spanish. Mrs. D. (principal extraordinaire (now retired), I have mentioned her before) and her bilingual hubby Dan. I very much appreciate their participation and it was great to see them both again.
This sweet girl is Melanie. She could not come out with us because it is not safe for her to be around other people right now. She was alone when I came by her room, playing with her play dough. I had to wear a gown to visit her. We had so much fun decorating stars. I didn't want to leave.
Meet Gary, aka Turbo. Turbo and his dad are well known around the office. But, this was the first time I got to meet him. When he's not putting all of his energy into fighting his cancer, he likes to do things like skateboard. Last week he was visiting a water park and fell and broke his leg. Even that has not slowed him down much! Turbo is not the only fighter in his family. His dad is an amputee who designed his own snow board that he could attach a crutch to so he could balance and keep snowboarding. This family rocks!
We had three "Arches of Hope" along the walk course. We hung the stars on the arches to remind everyone why we do this. We also had a table at the walk site where people could decorate stars to hang on the arches.
Another arch starting to get decorated.
Dad: You're going to put all those balloons in your car? I don't think so. Plan B. As you can see, the back seat is already full of balloons. We had to get them to the hospital somehow... Along with the ice chest, snacks, binoculars, glow sticks...
Success!
I just thought this was a cool photo of the start finish line. The sky was pretty, but the clouds were coming in. I was hoping the rain would hold off until after the walk. (It did. But, we did get a nice lightening show in the distance.) 
The walk site had some really cool activities for kids. There were bounces houses and this really cool tricycle track.
Another view of the tricycle track.
The banner making table, for teams who had not yet decorated their team banner. They had paint and markers. It was a quick fix, but some really cute banner came off that table.
This was the view from the moon roof of my car, making sure the balloons stayed put!
1 comment:
Was that a cig I saw in Uncle Marlin's hand? In the pic with all the balloons being fitted into the car?
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