On March 4th, Holly Westerfield invites runners and walkers of all ages and abilities to ‘March Forth,’ in a fun run/walk/march around Green Lake. The event will start and finish at the Green Lake Community Center, where a large selection of booths and entertainment may lead participants to think more ‘festival’ than ‘fundraiser.’ Yet, all proceeds will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS,) through the Team In Training program.
Welcome to Fremont!
The Washington/Alaska Chapter of LLS relocated its offices from South Lake Union to Fremont last September, and took a five year lease on space in the old PROLAB building. “It is a great location for us,” explained Megan Lanier, Campaign Director.
When seeking a new location, the Fremont area was a top contender, Lanier reported, due to its easy freeway access and visibility for patients and potential supporters. The LLS offices can provide patient services, including information, a co-pay assistance program, and making connections between people diagnosed with similar blood cancers, although most patients access these through the internet or telephone.
The chapter offices also quarterly hold information sessions for potential participants of Team In Training. For the charity sports endurance training program, a location along the Burke-Gilman Trail seemed particularly appropriate.
Yet, Team In Training is only one of the fundraisers that Lanier oversees for the Washington/Alaska region. “Team In Training used to be the largest campaign,” she explained, but she has diversified the methods of raising money, which also diversifies who gets the opportunity to give. Lanier and her team of eight operate several campaigns, “that were unique to our chapter,” Lanier reported, “but are now done across the country.”
These campaigns include Pennies for Patients (school-based,) the Firefighter Stair Climb, the Big Climb, Light The Night, the Winter Pineapple Classic in North Bend (an obstacle course run while carrying a pineapple,) and a Celebrity Waiters Auction.
Welcome To The Cause
All the efforts fund the mission of LLS, to support the fight against blood cancers and blood diseases – most especially finding a cure. A majority of the patients LLS supports have Lymphoma, Leukemia, Hodgkin’s Disease or Myeloma, but they will help all patients fighting a diverse selection of blood diseases and cancers. So far, Lanier explained, modern science has typed 140 different blood cancers.
LLS funds research (seven researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research have LLS grants,) and it does work. Today, Leukemia is much more fatal in older adults than children. Forty years ago a child diagnosed with the disease had a 4% survival rate. Today they have a 90% chance. In research alone, LLS has funded $74 million around the world.
LLS also partners with drug companies, and advocates for government funding, for drug affordability, and for making treatments otherwise unaffordable accessible. The organization also pushes for research, advocacy and patient support dealing with the long-term effects of current treatments. Sterility, nerve damage, and other life-long side effects can permanently debilitate survivors.
Team In Training
“Our hope is that we’ll be out of jobs in 10 years,” explained Lanier. They won’t mind at all, she reported, “we’ll have a really big party!”
Meanwhile, Lanier works to raise money to find that cure – and one of the largest campaigns is Team In Training. The first, and arguably still the largest, sports training program, it began 24 years ago, in New York, with Bruce Cleland – who raised $300,000 for LLS. Now available across the country, Team In Training has trained over 500,000 people and raised $1.2 billion.
“A lot of our participants have been sitting on the couch before,” explained Lanier. For Fremonster Holly Westerfield, “I’d always seen their purple brochures, and I believed that they would take beginners.”
Participants select a particular race (marathon, half-marathon, hike, triathlon or bike ride) they want to train for, and sign-up with Team In Training. “I started with the marathon team. I was very slow,” Westerfield admitted, “I was always at the back.” In a few years, she has graduated to triathlons, and will participate, again, in the Lavaman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii on April 1st.
Certified coaches oversee the physical training of participants, including scheduling and advice (including clinics on nutrition, injury prevention, etc.) The team environment also provides support. As Westerfield recalled, her coach and her team were “very encouraging, very welcoming of beginners.” The teams contain participants at “all paces and all levels,” of experience, Lanier reported, including some division winners.
Ultimately, however, Team In Training is about fundraising. Participants sign-up to run (walk, bike, hike, swim, etc.), and raise a minimum amount that will go toward the race costs (accommodations/transport/race fees) plus 76% to fund the mission of LLS. Volunteer mentors can assist participants with meeting all their goals – physical and fundraising.
Now well-experienced, Westerfield helps as a mentor (“just an amazing volunteer,” Lanier called her.) She applied and went through training, and feels confident about assisting others with all sorts of advice – everything short of coaching, she is very clear to state.
Each team also contains an Honored Team Mate – a person in treatment or in remission – that provides inspiration, and helps participants focus on the mission. “They always keep the mission first and foremost,” Westerfield reported, “we consistently focus on why we are doing this – to support LLS!”
To learn more about Team In Training, and how it led Westerfield to ‘March Forth’ on March 4th at Green Lake, read the follow-up column on Fremocentrist.com on February 27, 2012. Or, visit the March Forth website to register to run, walk or march!
Learn more about LLS, how the organization fights blood cancers and blood diseases, how to get help for a patient, and how you can help, by going to the website, or stop by the office at 123 NW 36th Street, and say hello!
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©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.