With so many things going on this past weekend, I had the opportunity to join in on an event for a worthy cause -the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk.
Leukemia and lymphoma are two types of cancers which affect the blood and/or bone marrow (where red blood cells are formed). With approximately 662,789* Americans living with lymphoma and an additional estimated 44,000* to be diagnosed with leukemia in the next year, Light the Night is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)'s national campaign aimed at not only raising funds for research and treatment, but to raise awareness about these diseases in the hopes of improving the quality of life of patients and their families, and eventually finding a cure.
The crowd that came out to Light the Night was incredible!
Participants that came to walk, did so, for a variety of reasons; many with stories of love and hope, others with tales of heartache and loss, but united in our goal we put on our walking shoes, and with the lighted balloons we were given to commemorate our reason for walking, we stood tall and walked proudly through the downtown streets to show our support.
And there was was this lively group with their own compelling story! Chatting away, I noticed their sign and asked to take a picture of them with it. They asked me to wait for them to get in alphabetical order, which confused me until I looked at what they had spelled: Go Larry! :) And here's what Andrew (the organizer of this group of enthusiastic walkers wrote me when I sent him the picture:
Larry is my dad, who was just diagnosed with Leukemia a couple of weeks ago. He's being treated up in the capitol area right now, so I participated in the Light the Night Walk because it felt like something I could do to really show him some support while I'm here attending college. I happen to have some amazing friends who were more than willing to join me for the event and let him know how much we're thinking of him! (As a nice bonus, we were able to raise a bunch of money for LLS, which means a lot since their research is what's helping to save him right now.)
Stopping traffic where we trod that night, onlookers could not help but see our message. Thousands strong, those that walked or those for whom we walked know that this is not a journey they ever have to walk alone.
Ciao, amici!
Stella Notte
* Leukemia & Lymphoma Society 2011 statistics
For more information on how you can Light the Night click here
For more information on Leukemia and Lymphoma click here
About the shoes:
Day 266: Thursday October 18th 2012
Designer: Sketchers
Name: Straightway
Color: Charcoal/Black
Style: Athletic Biker Fashion Sneaker Slip-on
Material: Leather and mesh upper with bungee-style lacing along vamp
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