Maryanne Kirk, 4, and her family are looking forward to attending the Akron Rubber Ducks game Friday night at Canal Park.
Athletes throughout Northeast Ohio are getting ready to “Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer” in support of children, teens and young adults with cancer at Akron Children’s Hospital’s Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders.Akron Children’s is once again teaming up with Go4theGoal to urge local middle, high school, recreational league and college athletes to wear specially-designated gold shoe laces during September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The $5 laces can be easily purchased through Go4theGoal and 100 percent of the proceeds support the Showers Center’s patients.
“Last year’s Lace Up campaign, our first, was a huge success, raising more than $25,000, and we are looking forward to partnering again with Go4theGoal,” said Dr. Jeff Hord, director of the Showers Center. “It was great fun to see how many athletes, parents, coaches, athletic directors and sports fans participated last year, spread the word and got creative with their Lace Up efforts.”
Dr. Hord would like to use money raised this year to create an adolescent and young adult cancer program, including re-designing space on the hematology-oncology unit that would especially appeal to teens.
Last year, more than 5,000 fall athletes from dozens of school districts participated, including soccer, football and volleyball players, cheerleaders and cross country runners. They bought the gold laces and dedicated games and meets as “Lace Up” events. Some contributed money from their ticket and concession sales. A few teams set up booths to sell laces at school and a troupe of Irish dancers, all wearing gold laces, posted a YouTube video of its performance.
Molly Norris, a varsity soccer player at Manchester High School, is this year’s athlete advocate.
Norris was diagnosed as a toddler with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. In October 2010, at age 10, she developed Hodgkin’s lymphoma, possibly as a result of a medication she was taking to keep her pain free from the arthritis.
She began several months of chemotherapy at Akron Children’s that fall and winter. Norris was back playing soccer by April, but the experience left her greatly appreciative of her care givers at Akron Children’s.
“When I was undergoing treatment for the Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I had a lot of emotions. I was scared. I felt really sick and, at times, I was really bored having to be at the hospital and not doing things I wanted to be doing,” she said. “I would really like to help other kids facing similar situations. I hope athletes all over Northeast Ohio get involved and we see gold laces everywhere this September. It’s fun, easy and for a good cause.”
To get your team involved, contact Nate Mulberg at natemulberg@go4thegoal.org or 856-979-8384. Schools, teams and individual athletes who wish to create their own online fundraising pages may do so at https://donate.go4thegoal.org/events/akron-hospital-partnership/e53651.
The 7 p.m. Aug. 28 Akron Rubber Ducks game is Cancer Survivors’ Night for Akron Children’s Hospital and will feature a pre-game parade for patients, family and staff, a gold balloon release, and Rubber Ducks players and staff wearing gold laces. Fireworks follow the game.
