Lighting the Night for Faith and Judy!

After a long silence, I can finally post about something I have done in the Racing for a Cure arena!  This past Saturday night, I walked in Light the Night (LTN) to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to support cancer survivors, and to remember those that didn't survive.  Two of the latter were my friends Faith and Judy, both gone well before their times because of these awful and ruthless diseases.  Faith died from Hodgkin's lymphoma - the same thing I've now survived 10 years - just before three years after diagnosis.  She was just 43.  Judy died from multiple myeloma, one month to the day from her diagnosis.  She was 65, having reached the so-called golden years, which for her, were not so golden.

In 2009, Faith - while still undergoing chemotherapy - walked in Light the Night.  Her team, Faith's Hope, raised over $10,000.  I met her in person that night, and was a member of that team.  She was so proud of her accomplishments to fight back and to help others.  Now, Faith is gone, but her cause and memory live on.  Her sister Leigh formed a LTN team called "Faith's Hope - 2012," and we walked to honor the memory of her sister, and many others.  I wore a photo of Judy and Faith, and Judy's husband Bill, himself undergoing chemotherapy right now for colon cancer, walked with me and wore his late wife's photo.  Faith's beloved dog Henry, now lovingly cared for by Leigh, walked along with us.

Our team did well, raising more than $6,000 (which includes some checks that have not yet posted).  Here is my LTN page in case you want more information (or even want to make a contribution).

Hurricane Sandy disrupted and destroyed many things, but it held off long enough for us to get our walk in.  I am posting a few photos from the night.  My camera was having problems with its flash sometimes, so I didn't get a lot of these.

Before the walk, we had a remembrance ceremony to remember those who have passed away.  So many have been lost while we race for a cure.  I included my sister Ann in my thoughts.  I wrote a message to her on a paper flower and tied it to the trellis that they had set up.  I miss her every day.  These guys piped a moving rendition of "Amazing Grace."

Bill carries a gold balloon as someone who lost a loved one to a blood cancer.  He and I both carry white balloons as cancer survivors.  Bill had chemo three days before and I was concerned that he would be unable to do the walk, but he hung in there to the end.  He went home very tired.

I posted this so you can see our team banner.  Faith lives on in the love and memories of family and friends.

Lighting the Night, and Thinking of “BJ”

Even though I had not fundraised or even planned in advance to walk in Light the Night this year, my schedule freed up late yesterday afternoon, and I decided to go. I ended up running into several friends there: Kristi, Nancy, Chuck, Jenn, and Katie (who spoke as a survivor to the LTN crowd) from Team in Training, and awesome recent cancer survivor and fund-raising champ Faith from last year’s “Faith’s Hope” Light the Night team. I also met Faith’s cute little dog, Henry, for the first time. Like the rest of us, he had a good time walking for a cure. The weather could not have been more perfect for this event, with the nearly full moon shining brightly a day after the Hunters’ Moon, and Jupiter shining in the east like a beacon.

While waiting in line to register, there was a woman behind me wearing a shirt with a photo of a young man and the words that she was walking in memory of “BJ.” I told her I was sorry for her loss, and she told me that she was “BJ’s” mother, and how her son died on March 17 of 2009. He was only 16. Even though I am not a “weepy” person, I could feel my eyes filling with tears at the thought of this mother’s unimaginable loss.

If you know me, and you are familiar with what I do for Team in Training, you know that one of the really big things for me when I do my races for the Purple Team is running and walking in honor and memory of those who have had cancer. In all five of my events, my shirt on race day is covered with names, including four months ago in Seattle and 18 months ago in Nashville. So even though I am not yet signed up for Team in Training, I decided to start my name list for 2011 last night, starting with “BJ.” I told his mother that I would like to write his name on my shirt for my next race, and she seemed touched by this. She wrote his name down for me, and his birth and death dates. He was born at Christmas time in 1992 and died on St. Patrick’s Day in 2009, which should be two very festive times. But I am sure that for “BJ’s” family, these dates will always be tinged with sadness.

Cancer is always horrible. But it is particularly horrific when children are involved. My Nashville teammates Tami and Fred lost their son Blake to leukemia at age 15. My friend Holly nearly lost her daughter a few months old to leukemia. There is the little girl who’s mom talked about at our Seattle Inspiration Dinner – getting cancer twice by the time she was two years old. My teammate Ann lost her son to leukemia at age 19. Then there is the little girl in Nashville with leukemia that I ran into while I was there with the race. I will probably never see her again, but I will never forget her and hope that she is healthy and stays that way. And now, there is Maurice (“BJ”), whom I’ve never met and never will meet. I don’t know anything about this young man. But two things with absolute certainty I do know are that he had life stolen from him decades and decades too soon, and that his family will always have a hole in their lives. I can’t change any of that, but when I do my next race for Team in Training in the fall of 2011, I will remember “BJ” and wear his name on my shirt.

The Light the Night went through Carytown, and it was a beautiful walk. All of the lighted balloons glowing in the dark are so pretty. I saw many other people wearing the team shirts in memory of “BJ”, and of several other teams. It is always moving to me to see the teams, and all of the gold (walking in memory of a loved one) and white (cancer survivor) balloons. It has been eight years for me now since I was so ill, and by the grace of God, I walked last night once again as a strong and lucky survivor. One day, there will be cures for every type of blood cancer – I believe this in my heart. If we continue to be just a little more relentless than cancer is, it will happen.

Here are a few photos from last night.

It's still light, but people are gathering their balloons: red for supporters, gold for remembering those who have passed on from this awful diseases, and white for us very lucky survivors:
From right, Jackie (Hodgkin lymphoma survivor), her daughter Kristi (Hodgkin lymphoma and thyroid cancer survivor, and my friend and teammate from a number of events with Team in Training), Kristi's daughter Rebecca (may she always walk with a red balloon), and Nancy (currently with chronic lyphocatic leukemia, and one of my mentee's from this past Summer TNT season).
From right, my friend Faith (Hodgkin lymphoma survivor), her friend Marla (breast cancer survivor who just walked the 60 mile Komen Three-Day) and her husband, and Faith's and my friend Jenn, TNT alumni from this past winter. Faith and Jenn joined me this past March as cheerleaders at the Shamrock Marathon at Virginia Beach.
The walk starting, and underway through Cary Town. Light the Night!

Tape - The Natural Enemy of Men

There are some things that you should never, ever mix. Things that just don’t go well together at all. Things like gasoline and a lighted match. Peanut butter and garlic pesto sandwiches. Oil and water. Cats and mice. Tape (or anything that is sticky on one or both sides) and men.

When I volunteered for Light the Night a week ago, I finished my first assigned task and said to Tiffany, the enthusiastic LTN coordinator, “Okay, what’s next?” She handed me two big plastic signs that said “Food Tent” on them and said, “Why don’t you go hang these on two sides of the food tent? Here’s the tape!” Oh no – tape? Not the tape! My hand quivered a bit as I picked up the big tape gun and walked, with great trepidation, towards the food tent.

I am just not good taping or wrapping things, and to generalize, I don’t think that most men are. A popular Christmas time TNT fund-raiser is to wrap purchases made by shoppers at a store, with the store’s permission, and then the person that you wrapped the gift for makes a donation. I tell people, only half in jest, that stores will donate to my Team in Training effort if I promise not to wrap gifts on their premises.

At the food tent, I carefully studied the situation. There was horizontal pipe framing for the tent about seven feet off the ground, and it was hidden by the fabric of the tent. Anything hiding my taping would be a plus. Oh, why couldn’t this involve rope? Rope is a good medium for manly men to work with, but not tape! After years sailing my 23 foot sloop off the coast of Maine, I was pretty good with rope, and can still tie a good bowline with my eyes closed in a few seconds. My tape work just looks like I had my eyes closed.

I cut a piece of tape, a little too short of course, and looped it over the pipe, then attached the end to the back of the first sign so that it hung at a sloppy angle, dangling in the air like a fallen cat clinging desperately to a ledge with one paw. I repeated the process at the other end so that the sign was hung. It barely hung under the fabric enough to read it. And one side of the tape was straight down and the other at a ridiculous angle. So I kept adding tape, none of it neat in any sense of the word, but all hidden by the tent’s skirting. I repeated the process for the other sign, and it even looked worse, but thanks to the skirting, it was tolerable. If it were a Christmas gift wrapped with the same sloppiness, the person getting the gift would assume that I hired a baboon to wrap it for them.

It reminded me of the big 26.2 sticker I had recently put on my car. I’ve been a marathoner for over 4 years now, and have been meaning to do this. The sticker has a sticky side with two pieces of paper backing that you pull off, and then apply to a surface. Easy enough, but when I did it, there were about six or seven big air bubbles trapped under the sticker. I spent about 15 minutes trying to push them out with my fingers, to no real avail. It just looks sloppy. I am sure people see it and wonder “Did a baboon put that sticker on that car? Do baboons run marathons?”

I finished my task and went back to see Tiffany for my next assignment. “You can set up the Light the Night store,” she said. “See these big boxes? They are all stuffed with LTN sweatshirts. Just take them out, fold them neatly, and put them on the tables.” Fold clothing? Neatly??? Oh, no!!!!

Faith's Hope

One of the really great things about Light the Night is seeing all of the white balloons, because every one of those balloons is carried by a cancer survivor. 40 years ago, surviving cancer was a rare thing. Now it is common, but not common enough, which is why so many people are out there raising money to defeat these terrible diseases.

Last night, one of those white balloons was carried by Faith, a young Richmond woman who is currently wrapping up her treatment for stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. Stage 4 means it has metastasized from the lymphatic system and into organs. In Faith's case, this was her lungs, spleen, and bone marrow. You can imagine that this is quite serious, and Faith has had to undergo a terrible ordeal as she fights for remission.

But Faith did more than just fight her own battle. She used her illness and her courageous fight against cancer to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by joining Light the Night. She formed a team, Faith's Hope, and recruited friends for her team, many of them raising money as well. Faith's team raised $9,334 for Light the Night, the most by far of any team in Virginia this year. Faith single-handed raised over $7,100 of that amount. In fact, she raised more money as an individual than any other team in Virginia. Now, that is simply incredible!

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A mutual friend gave Faith my email address some months back, and she reached out to me as someone who has been through Hodgkin lymphoma and its rigorous treatments, although I am sure that Faith has had to endure more than I did. So we have been exchanging emails for a while, and I joined her team to raise a few dollars of my own for Light the Night. But until last night, I had never met Faith. That changed when the big and enthusiastic team that she had recruited formed up prior to the event. One of the highlights of the evening for me was getting to meet Faith at last, and to give her a big hug - one survivor to another. I know that our entire team was inspired by her. And I know that when I do my next TNT event, Faith's name will be written on my race singlet.

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Faith's fight is nearly over - her treatment ends in two weeks. She has responded well, and final scans after she is done with chemo will determine the level of success. I have no doubt that she will soon finish kicking cancer's ugly butt to the curb! And that she will continue to inspire people with her story and her actions.

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Go Faith! Go Faith's Hope!

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Here are a few photos from last night. I really enjoyed meeting everyone on Faith's team. It was my honor to walk with you all - thanks for coming out with Faith's Hope, supporting her, and supporting this cause.

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Faith and her good friend Jenn. Jenn cleaned Faith's house when Faith was in the hospital, walked her dog, and generally kept an eye on her during her treatment. One of the spring team mentors and I walked a bit with Jenn and were trying to convice her to join Team in Training. Do it Jenn, do it! You won't regret it.

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Part of Faith's Hope. Mary, the lady on the far left, survived Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 31 years ago, which is beyond remarkable. From left: Mary, Mary, Scottie, Faith, Lis, and Susan. Lis brought Faith ginger ale when she couldn't keep anything else down, and walked her dog on weekends.

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Our team was big, and it seemed impossible to get everyone in the same place for a photo, but here is one with me in there with some of our team. Back row, from left: Scottie, Lis, Beth (one of Faith's sisters), Jenn, and David. Kneeling: Art, Faith, Martha.

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Awesome survivor Faith holding her white balloon (the wierd loop was the ribbon to a balloon blowing in the wind)

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People carrying their lighted balloons

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Part of Faith's Hope after the walk - everyone is happy, everyone is inspired!

Volunteering is Hard Work!

So, I spent from 1PM yesterday until 5PM volunteering at Light the Night. It reminded me of how many things only get done because of volunteers, every single day. And it felt good to give back in a different way. If I win the lottery tonight, I will be doing a lot more volunteering - for many organizations and causes.

So what type things did I do? I hung banners with rope. I unloaded vehicles. I used tape to hang more banners, and to put Light the Night plastic "skirting" around all of the tables. I will probably be writing a post later about how tape - and in fact anything that is sticky on one side and designed to be applied to something - is the natural enemy of men. I unpacked and folded sweatshirts for sale. And I did a lot with balloons!

Light the Night is all about the balloons. Hundreds of balloons. And every one of those balloons must have a light inserted, and the balloon must be inflated. I will never take a balloon for granted again, because the last couple of hours of my shift was working with balloons. To insert the light requires two people. One sticks their fingers way down into the balloon and pulls it open - tougher than it sounds when repeated 100 times. The other tests the light and inserts it into the balloon. Then they must be inflated with helium, often with a deafening POP in the confined space of the balloon tent! But eventually, the 750 balloons were all inflated - white for survivors, red for supporters, and gold for walking in memory of someone.

Balloons with lights inserted lined up on the table ready for being inflated with helium


Red balloons are prepared


At the end, there is not a lot of room


Amber and Elliott, two of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's many fabulous employees, at the Team in Training recruitment tent. Come on, join TNT - you know you want to. Make TNT the road taken - you won't regret it!

Brief Report on Light the Night

I am tired, it is late, and the Phillies are currently losing to the Yanks - bummer. So this will be most brief. I promise to write more soon and post photos from Light the Night.

I'm beat! I got there at 1PM to help set up and got home just after 8PM. Lots of volunteers and LLS staff worked very hard to pull this off. Light the Night is beautiful with all of the lighted balloons - of which I blew up a hundred or so. Balloons were red for supporters of blood cancer patients, white for blood cancer survivors, and gold if you were walking in memory of someone.

I saw several friends, and met my team captain and fellow survivor, Faith. She is undergoing chemo for stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma, but showed up to walk. After months of trading emails, it was great to meet her in person. She is clearly a wonderful lady.

Seeing the TNT tent there and talking with TNT staff Amber, Cate, and Elliot make me want to sign up for an event. But which one? So tough to decide!

People are so Generous!

So a couple of days ago, I sent out an email to my contacts to ask them to donate five dollars to my Light the Night Campaign. I had already raised $45, and hoped to get 31 five dollar donations to reach $200. I was specifically requesting donations from people who had not donated to my 2009 TNT Cancer Kickin’ Campaign.

Instead, I had 22 people donate about $470 in three days! Many of them donated 25, 50, or even 100 dollars, and many of them had already donated to my TNT campaign! But here they were, back making another donation. I really appreciate this generosity to such a good cause.

My LTN team is Faith’s Hope. Faith is a local woman who is currently battling stage-four Hodgkin lymphoma. She has done an amazing job at fund raising. Our team has raised over $7,300, is number one in fund-raising in Virginia, and is nearly $3,000 ahead of the second place team. If I sound like I am bragging, I am not. I had nothing to do with that. Faith, our team captain, has decided that she was going to use the occasion of her illness to make a difference, and she has personally raised over $5,500 of our team’s total! Therefore, she as an individual has out-raised every other team, by far! Go Faith!

Even though I am not going to go crazy with fundraising right now just months after ending Team in Training, it does feel good to have those donations coming in, and to see once more how generous people are in a down economy. I will be sending out one more note (for a total of two), and that will end my fundraising attempts for this year.

Gimme Five! for Light the Night

This is my first Light the Night fundraising note.

Hi everyone,

If you donated to my 2009 Cancer Kickin’ Campaign for the Country Music Half-Marathon in Nashville, then this note is just informational – no action is requested. Thanks again for your generous donation.

If you are currently out of work, then this note is just informational – no action is requested. I sincerely hope that you are employed soon.

But if you are not in one of these two groups, then I am asking you to Gimme 5!

1. Gimme 5 minutes of your time! On October 29, I’ll be walking two miles to light the night! Go to my Light the Night web page at:

http://pages.lightthenight.org/va/Richmond09/ARitter

There, you will learn more about The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and its Light the Light Program. In the four or five minutes that it takes you to review my web page, someone new is diagnosed with a blood cancer – so money for research and patient support is desperately needed.

2. Gimme 5 bucks! I am trying to raise a very modest $200 by doing this event, and so I am requesting a very modest five dollar donation to this great cause. I have already raised $45, and so if only 31 of you getting this note make a five dollar donation, then I will reach that goal – and you will have helped in the battle against cancer. Of course, larger or smaller donations are much appreciated, too!

3. Gimme 5 friends! Send this e-mail to five of your friends or colleagues and help me spread the word about what I am doing! Maybe they will want to make a donation as well, or maybe they know someone who has cancer and who will get some encouragement that people are out there making a difference.

4. Gimme 5 months since I ran the half-marathon in Nashville! During the five months that I’ve been taking it easy since the race, approximately 21,600 Americans have died from blood cancers.

5. Gimme 5 years since volunteering for LLS! This coming January marks five years since I went to a informational meeting for TNT and signed up to do the Midnight Sun Marathon. I am alive and healthy seven years after getting Hodgkin lymphoma only because of cancer research. When I was ill, I pledged to give something back once I was healthy again, and raising money for LLS is what I have been called to do. But I can’t do it without you.

6. Gimme 5 hundred thousand Americans who have contracted blood cancers in those five years! I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be a survivor! Help me help others with cancer to win their battles.

So Gimme Five! You’ll be helping so many others, and you will feel good about yourself all day! Thanks for the support, and thanks again if you donated to my Team in Training campaign earlier.

With humble gratitude,
Art

Light the Night Page is All Set Up!

As I mentioned a week or so ago, I am doing Light the Night for LLS on October 29. My fundraising page is all set up:

http://pages.lightthenight.org/va/Richmond09/ARitter

I've joined the Team of Faith's Hope. I am not going to go nuts with fundraising, but would love to reach $200 by a series of $5.00 donations. C'mon - five bucks! That's like a Chai Latte and a donut, and no calories are involved.

Plus you'll feel better! So "Gimme five!"