“Dad, I have a question. Is cancer life-threatening?”
So began Steve Price’s journey with leukemia when his 12-year-old son, Trevor, asked that question shortly after he was diagnosed with the illness in January, 2002. Trevor had been an outstanding student and participated in many sports near his home on the Sammamish Plateau including karate, soccer, baseball and even the Seattle Kids Marathon.
A dental exam, brought on by Trevor complaining about his teeth hurting, had the dentist pulling six of Trevor’s baby teeth, as they were still in place while his adult teeth were growing in the same locations. The following day Trevor had a nose bleed that wouldn’t quit. A neighbor picked Trevor up from school that day and took him to see the doctor thinking that the nose bleed “just wasn’t right.”
Blood tests at Evergreen Hospital suspected that Trevor had leukemia. More tests at Children’s Hospital And Regional Medical Center in Seattle confirmed the fact. Several months of treatments and hospitalizations at Children’s followed.
It was a bittersweet time for the extended family. Trevor looked forward to the birth of his new cousin, Jamie, who arrived the following June. Three days before her birth, a perfect-match bone marrow donation from Trevor’s younger brother, Trenton, 9, showed promise.
Three weeks after the bone marrow transplant Trevor was released from the hospital. The following day, however, his condition worsened and he returned to the hospital for testing. He died at home three days later on June 30, 2002.
 Impressed by the work of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Steve, an engineer at Boeing, organized a group of 10 co-workers called Project Trevor to participate in The Big Climb in 2002 in honor of his son. The annual stair climbing event is a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraiser and is held at the Bank of America Tower in Seattle every March. It features 1,311 steps and 788 feet of vertical elevation.
Project Trevor raised $12,500 in 2002 and again in 2003. Support for Project Trevor has continued to grow at Boeing and among Steve’s friends and family. Team participation this year was over 125 people who raised over $30,000. Project Trevor team members wear a specially designed team t-shirt in Trevor’s favorite color — orange — that became popular attire at Steve’s office.
“Trevor played for a soccer team named Valencia, and their shirts were orange so he wore the color often,” Steve explained. “So, I chose orange for the Project Trevor shirt.”
Events with a cause
Athletes know how healthy cycling, running, climbing and walking can be for the body and soul. Increasingly, many are learning that their sports can do great things for causes they find important.
 Many charitable organizations sponsor indoor and outdoor events as a way to raise both money and awareness for their groups. The Pacific Northwest hosts outdoor fundraisers for lung disease, autism, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, lupus, heart disease, cystic fibrosis, asthma and many other causes.
A personal connection to cancer inspires many of the participants in events for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and its Livestrong series around the country, including Portland. Patrick Chatfield, a Seattle resident, is an avid cyclist and longtime supporter of Livestrong Challenge events.
“My energy and commitment to the LAF are inspired by the memory of my father, Ken Chatfield, who passed away in 1993 due to cancer, as well as all those people I have met through my association with the LAF who have been touched by cancer in their lives,” Chatfield said. “While I am not a true ‘cancer survivor,’ I feel that my past personal experience allows me the compassion, understanding and fortitude to help the LAF fight this disease on the personal, financial and political levels, as well as provide whatever assistance I can to those people who are battling it.”
Chatfield sees the Livestrong events as not only a chance to raise money for the organization, but to meet and educate others. He participated and volunteered at the Portland Livestrong Challenge in 2005 and 2006, and in 2007 participated in Portland and Austin. He will add the San Jose event this year. This year’s Livestrong Challenge in Portland is June 28-29.
In addition to participating in events, he has also organized programs for the group.
“This year, I organized and staffed the LAF booth at the Seattle International Bike Expo to inform the public of LAF resources, as well as promote the Challenge,” he said. “I had some very sincere and heartbreaking conversations with cancer survivors.” Chatfield also organized a Livestrong Day event, spinning on a bike in downtown Seattle, to raise awareness of the LAF and cancer survivorship, and again was able to provide resources to people who needed it.
Pledges are critical
Participants of fundraising events either pay an entry fee, typically $20 to $35, and/or collect pledges from sponsors. Sponsorship minimums range depending on the event, with supported multi-day cycle tours such as the American Lung Association’s Trek Tri-Island bicycle tour requesting a $500 minimum sponsorship plus a $75 registration fee. Oftentimes, prizes are offered as incentives for collecting high pledges.
 “We provide fundraising incentives (to participants) for the Arthritis Walk,” said Kelsey Birnbaum, Special Events Coordinator for the Arthritis Foundation Pacific Northwest. “Walkers who net $100 earn a t-shirt, and we have numerous prizes beyond that.”
Proudly wearing their fundraising t-shirts at the Tacoma Arthritis Walk last May, Kassidi Reaugh and her mother, Kristi, walked with others affected by Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA).
Kassidi, 13, also an honoree at the event, was diagnosed with JRA in 2005. An avid ballet dancer, Kassidi was weeks away from getting her first pointe shoes when she learned that the illness would end her dancing aspirations.
“Receiving the news that my child has JRA was very sad, yet very real,” Kristi said. “I know she is my daughter but for being 13 years old and living with this disease, she is an amazingly strong young lady and loves to be involved with the walk. Our entire family participates in the walk which allows us to meet others with JRA.”
While many athletes see the fundraising events as incentives to aggressively train and compete, other participants are less competitive. Randy Rogers of Eugene, Ore. planned the 100-mile Volcanoes to Valleys bicycle ride as a fundraiser for the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation to give riders an alternative to the lengthier Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP).
“My father and grandfather died from Parkinson’s Disease,” Rogers said. “Having an event to motivate me to get out and ride helps, but I would participate with little or no training to help make a difference in the lives of people with Parkinson’s Disease.”
Fundraisers have extended to a variety of causes beyond human health issues. The Seattle Animal Shelter, host of the Furry 5K walk and run every June, uses proceeds not just on shelter facilities but on spay and neuter services, animal abuse prevention and foster programs. Mindy Francisco volunteers with the event.
“Three of my cats and my dog were all shelter rescues,” she said. “I had another dog who also was a shelter rescue and who’s frolicking in dog-heaven now. What motivated me to volunteer was my passion for all animals and to help the homeless ones in any way I could.”
 Prominent outdoor events promote awareness of sensitive issues that are largely overlooked or misunderstood. Jonathan Manheim walks annually in the Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk, a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Manheim lost his son, Garth, 16, to suicide in 1991.
“My emotional commitment definitely drives all aspects of my participation in the Overnight,” said Manheim. “My personal goal is promoting clinical research into the causes of suicide. Our treatments are in their infancy, and very empirical, and that can be dangerous.”
Manheim adds, “We devote very little in the way of resources to understanding suicide and being able to treat it as the medical problem it is, far less than we devote to any number of other diseases that take far fewer lives than suicide does the world over.”
While many participants in charity events have a personal connection to the cause, others simply have the desire to help their communities. Some walkers in the Overnight have not experienced a family member’s suicide, but are concerned about the issue of suicide.
“Most of the people I have met who participate in the Overnight have lost someone close to them due to mental illness and suicide,” Manheim said. “What is actually more surprising, and very gratifying, is the ones I’ve met who have not lost a loved one to suicide, who are doing it just because it’s an urgent health issue.”
Sarah Wyatt is a freelance writer from Mountlake Terrace and a dog-lover who fosters canine friends from rescue shelters.
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