It was a lovely evening in September, and a handful of AHA officers and members were huddled with hundreds of others in the Madison Mallards Ballpark, Warner Stadium. These secular individuals were not gathered to watch a ballgame as one would expect, given their location, but rather to walk towards a cure for cancer for the annual Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk. AHA had been working on raising money for this organization since the beginning of September and now continues to do so. Money raised by participants in the non-competitive Light the Night Walk support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s mission which is to “cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and Myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.”
Each walker at this event held a colored, illuminated balloon, and the color of each person’s balloon represented their reason for walking that night. Those who were cancer survivors carried white balloons, those who were walking for support carried red balloons, and those who were walking in memory of lost loved ones carried gold balloons.
One of AHA’s own officers is a cancer survivor, which made
the team’s walk even more meaningful. While looking up at the sky filled with
balloons, the colors of which signified loss and pain to many and hope and triumph
to others, it was clear to everyone that regardless of their differences,
they were all united on this night as they walked with a common wish: to someday
see an end to the misery that cancer causes.
Please note that every donation is matched!
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