Champions in Awareness

I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to the Super Bowl this year, when two proven champions meet for the final battle of the season. Although my favorite team will not be playing in this match up, they will be preparing for the next time they will face the winner of this great contest next fall. Now because I have always been in the Great Pacific North West and I lived in Washington growing up, I favor the home team and I feel the excitement of the "12th man" all across the country. Being a part of a team that has worked hard enough to earn a championship is an amazing feeling, and being a fan is almost just as good when it comes down to seeing our team facing a gladiator of an opponent in the arena. There are few things that compare to an experience like the thrill of scoring just enough points to bring down the opposing giant.




This year there is a new Champion coming to your town. The 2014 virtual event "Run to the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness" has teams of people joining to run together to raise the bar on raising awareness, in an effort to defeat their one an only opponent, childhood cancer. As new people join us, often times parents dedicating their miles to their own children facing a cancer diagnosis, we want to welcome each team to join together in this effort to give as many miles as possible each month all the way through September. The goal of raising awareness and running a million miles together in this event, will be getting those in our government to see people who are passionately trying to end the threat in their own children's lives. Its like a living, breathing, willing to sacrifice and take action, petition to turn our White House GOLD IN September, by taking steps in awareness all across the country to the let the voices of Our Kids be heard.




We will want to join together by getting everyone on a team this year, dedicating every step to a child who is currently in treatment. We will need to see you post your miles or time each day with your team name and state. It can look as simple as this "5 miles for #RunningForLincoln in OR." We are trying to get people to use the Facebook hash tag feature, because we know someday we could have hundreds if not thousands of people trending their teams on facebook and possibly twitter in the future. If you don't know any kids, we can assign you to a team, and for those who want to randomly dedicate to many other children, you will be assigned to #TeamFollowMe. You are also welcome to support different teams at different times, but it would work best if you changed teams to do this on the first of the month.


February will be our team building month, so invite your friends to be a part of your teams, who will prove to be Champions in Awareness for childhood cancer in the 2014 Run to the White House.


Click here to Join today and I will give everyone who joins in February a mile for joining a Team and posting their State. https://www.facebook.com/events/514823015291839/

#BeHopeful in 2014

I wanted to take a few minutes tonight, as the host of the Run to the White House, to share why I am running in 2014. I wasn't much of a runner in 2013, or at least until January 25 when this new chapter in my life began. You see, in 2011 my own son Lincoln was diagnosed with ALL (leukemia) or in other words a monster who threaten my son's life. Don't think I was just going to stand by and let cancer take over with out a fight (literally the only fight I have ever been in) During 2011 and 2012 as my son went through his first year of treatment, my eyes were opened to the universe of childhood cancers. Then on day as I was walking the halls of our hospital during an appointment, I became aware of a child I had been following on facebook, who had passed away in a room nearby. Between the threat on my own son, and the reality that children were being lost to the monster, I knew it was my turn to face my fears face to face. I began to follow more and more families until I lost count of how many there were. I couldn't keep my eyes shut anymore to their world, and it became mine too. I wanted to do more to raise awareness, but I didn't know what. Then I got this crazy idea in my head to run across the country as a 2013 new years resolution. I ended up traveling from Oregon to Idaho and realized I still had not run 3 miles, and 599 miles in the snow only scratched the surface of a 3000 mile journey. Then in the dead of winter I decided I was going to start walking around the block a mile at a time. It must have been ten years, but I realized that I could still run and walking wasn't quite enough for me. Then I asked some friends if they would be interested in doing a virtual run, and I would call it the Run to the White House. Word got going quick and 50 people became 500. I was running 5 miles now looking forward to 7 and 10 and possibly my first half marathon. I asked the group if they would like to wear running shirts, and the Follow Me movement began. After running right off the maps I was creating and around the world a few times, it was time to make a decision: how am I going to get to the White House??? It didn't take long and I had my tickets booked, and the best part was that I was going to meet many who had been running with me at CureFest 2013 in Washington DC.


The 2014 event is already off to an Epic start and its only going to get bigger as you keep inspired by the kids you are running for. In the next week or two, ask yourself what you will do to help kids fight cancer. Some will run, others walk and many will even watch this even as we reach for a million miles by September. Will you Follow Me to the White House again to let our government know that childhood cancer is not rare and deserves more? Its as easy as joining the event and giving a few miles, or as many as you can this year, and even if you don't log one mile, you can invite all of your friends and ask them to sponsor a child with cancer by donating miles. The Run for the White House will blaze a trail across this country again in 2014 because we haven't given up hope for Our Kids. Be inspired, be active and #BeHopeful as you run this year. Thank you all, and God Bless our children!