I was handed a program of all the things happening that night and all of the sponsors that help make this one of the major free events of the summer. There is a go cart track that is the most popular attraction each year and one of my friends paints the cars with the sponsors names on them like Les Schawb Tires. I know this event can cost thousands of dollars and the church needs volunteers and sponsors to pull together to make it happen for the community, but what would happen if no one sponsored any of this? It would probably cost each teenager about $10-$15 dollars that they would more likely spend on their iPods, instead of hearing the Message of Hope, that our church offers. If there was ever anything that someone with Cancer should not pay for its Hope.
Raising awareness for our kids, which is absolutely the first step in raising money to fund research for a cure, is a lot like advertising, which our children should never have to pay for it. Most parents of children fighting cancer already work hard together to raise awareness and some moms even go to the extreme of shaving their heads to get peoples attention and direct funds toward the cause. I was imagining one of the go carts at the event with a gold ribbon on it, but who would be the sponsor? The parents can't afford money to advertise the cause when the hospital bills never seem to quit. The kids fighting cancer certainly can't do a car wash to raise money when they are in the hospital. The families are already tapped out in time and money to help sustain the families, and friends give what they can sacrificially while still living their own lives.
It can be extremely difficult to ask for major donations from people or companies with money without a little give and take. Everybody wants a win-win and often there is enough to go around for the parties involved, but when is it comes to the hundreds and thousands of children diagnosed with life threatening illnesses each year, when will someone step up with purity, empathy and compassion and give without ever asking anyone, even indirectly, for recognition? I'm not asking because I don't want for win-win opportunities to be missed, but because I think that this is why more people don't cross these lines that have been made up in the business world. Right now if I had the only dose of medicine that would cure a dying child of leukemia and I knew there would be more made in the next month or year, I would give it to the critically ill child because I know that my son will live another day and have another opportunity to be cured. That's not easy to say, but if your child was safely evacuated from a burning school building, would you leave the rest to be lost?
The number one serial killer among our children will probably be cancer for a long time and its time we organize and mobilize the "childhood watch" program in our hometowns and in our circles of friends all over the world. We don't have the luxury for win-win opportunities and there is no reason to nickel and dime little kids when we can pour out our $4 a day drinking habits and support research through proven organizations listed on this blog.
Kids don't have time for cancer, they just want to be kids for the short time that they have in life. Please show you Care by becoming Aware, daily @ http://www.facebook.com/redcarpetkidsforthecure
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