Area walkers raise money to fight cancer
Around 400 area walkers joined hearts and hands Saturday to support a common cause: to raise money and awareness for people afflicted with blood cancers during the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Third Annual Fayette County Light the Night Walk. At the Uniontown Area High School’s Bill Power Stadium, the atmosphere was one of sadness yet hope, encouragement and thanks as teams of walkers formed and mingled to honor their loved ones, living and deceased, who have or who still are battling blood cancer.
Bringing together families for reasons held close to their hearts, the walk honored those and more, plus offered fun activities for the entire family, including food, balloons, a jumping station and face-painting for kids.
Katie Berger, campaign coordinator for the Western Pennsylvania & West Virginia Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, said this year’s goal was to raise $51,450, and the society was off to very good start, already raising $30,000 from various Fayette County sponsors before the walk even began.
Berger said this is the society’s largest event in Fayette County, while the county is also one of 300 sites in the United States to host Light the Night walks this year.
This is the third year for the event at Uniontown Area High School, and it has grown through an increased number of participants and the setting of higher fund-raising goals.
Last year, the event raised $45,000 and involved over 325 walkers.
All funds raised support the chapter’s mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease and myeloma and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families. The money also will be used to help the society’s grant of $1 million to help patients in disaster areas.
Berger added that each patient living in the society’s coverage area will receive $500 to help battle the costly affliction.
Signifying the importance of Fayette County’s patients, who Berger said really are the stars of the walk, colored stars were hung portraying each one’s name or picture.
Pictured on a red star was 5-year-old Cole Dwyer on his all-terrain vehicle. Cole was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer most common in children, when he was 4 years old.
He arrived at the walk with his family, including his mother, Kim, and father, Glenn Dwyer, his two sisters, Kelsey and Brooke, all of Belle Vernon, plus his uncles and aunts.
“It was not hard at all (to form a team) because everybody is willing to do anything for him,” said Kim Dwyer.
Dwyer expressed her gratitude to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which she said has provided not only financial, but, more importantly, emotional support in the family’s time of need.
“They have been so good to our family,” Dwyer said.
Though he takes steroids and sometimes is moody due to treatments, Cole started kindergarten this year, and, at Saturday’s walk, was anxious to join in the fun of the children’s activities.
Elsewhere at the event, Jennifer Smith, gazed at another star, hung both in memory of her mother, Dolores Wiltrout, who died from leukemia at the age of 57, and in honor and celebration of her father, James Wiltrout, whose leukemia is now in full remission.
Wiltrout of Normalville learned of his affliction in April 2005, a year after his wife was diagnosed with the same disease.
Wearing the bright yellow shirt that identified all the walk’s “stars” of the night, Wiltrout said his family was with him since “day one.” And Saturday was no different, as Wiltrout’s children and grandchildren gathered around him to support the man and the cause.
Coming to the event where blood cancer survivors and their families can share common experiences and goals makes a big difference, said Wiltrout’s daughter, Debbie Nicholson.
“You don’t feel like you’re alone or lost,” she added.
Speaking to other patients, said Wiltrout, is very encouraging, especially during one talk he had with another patient Saturday when he learned the doctor told the other patient upon his diagnosis that he would live only three to five months. That was 10 years ago.
Wiltrout, of course, told others of his experience and that he is happily now in full remission.
“I’m very happy I can stay around for another 10 years to see these little ones grow up,” Wiltrout said, motioning to two of his young, curly blond-haired granddaughters. “To take care of our children and our eight grandchildren was my wife’s last request.”
James and Dolores Wiltrout were married for 41 years before she died this past January.
Approximately 785,829 patients in the United States are battling blood cancers, and September marks the annual observance of awareness of the afflictions.