Previous Awareness

Years ago, the subject of breast cancer was taboo, and a diagnosis of that disease was devastating.  While it still is devastating, the prognosis is so much better these days. Why?  Because years ago people started talking about it.  The conversation was opened.  And now, every October everywhere you look, there’s pink.  Football players wear pink shoes.  Buildings are lit up in pink.  Pink bags at stores. What changed was awareness.  And awareness brought about conversations. And conversations brought about pressure to those who control the purse strings of government research funding.

We need this change to happen with childhood cancer.  Childhood cancer research is vastly underfunded. (The last statistic I knew was 4% of the entire federal research budget was allocated to researching *all* of childhood cancers…of which there are many.  I think that was increased, but cannot find to what amount at this time.)  Most of the treatments available today are the same ones that have been used for well over 40 years. Funding for research is the key to innovative new treatments which will leave our children with fewer long term effects, not the least of which is often infertility, secondary cancers, and even death from the toxicity of the treatment itself.  We ask people to “light up gold” during the month of September, use their public platform to raise awareness for this difficult subject, and contact elected officials to start making changes on a governmental level which will help the children of the future.

• During the month of September we had a donation jar at the Lodge.
• On September 23rd & 30th, all Range fees purchased were donated to Alex’s Lemonade Stand. (Range passes were available to purchase as well and can be used on a future date.)
• All month we shared information on our website and Facebook page about the challenges childhood cancer has on families.