HopeWell Reach Out & Run recap and an update on Legislative funding.

me & my stars...

Today was the day. HopeWell's 13th annual Reach Out & Run and my 1k walk. I have to say that, after a bit of a rocky start, the morning was an absolute joy!

The plan for the day was that Katie & I would get up at 4:30 am, get ready, get the girls up around 5:00 am so they could get ready and leave the house in plenty of time to get to Goucher College by 6:00 am to help set up for the event. Well, as many of you know, most good battle plans rarely survive first contact. I know our plan sure didn't. Zero dark thirty came awfully early and fast. As a result of that, both Katie & I slept through our alarms and we didn't get up until 5:10 am. Yikes! Needless to say, there was a lot of running around and hurrying to get ready as fast as we could so we could get out the door ASAP. We didn't do too bad. We were out the door by 5 'til 6 and got to Goucher College by 6:10 am. (Thank goodness for light traffic that early in the morning.)

Once we got there (trust me, we weren't the only ones that were late), they were just starting to put things together. All four of us got moving to unload the trucks to get the gear where it needed to go. As a result of everyone that was there working so hard and so well together, by 7:00 am we had transformed Goucher College into our own personal playground for the run and walk.

When everything got set up, Katie and the girls helped with various things that needed to be done with registration, with them eventually settling into handing out the t-shirts to the runners who registered that day and survivor back packs to the cancer survivors who were running or walking.

While they were doing a great job helping with registration, I was kind of left to my own devices. I helped a little here and there, but really didn't have a set job. Turns out that was kind of a good thing. Reason being, I kept running into people from GBMC and The Dance Center who have been helping take such good care of me. All of them told me that I was looking great. What they don't realize is that they are a big part of the reason why I look as good as I do.

Before the race started I pulled out my "surprise". I took my title belt with me! I took it out around 8:00 am and carried it with me the rest of the day. (You can see that in the pictures I have posted on Facebook). Emily & Lilli thought it was cool that I did. Katie thought it was embarrassing. (On one level she is correct, a 40 year old man running around with a kids replica of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Really. What kind of fool does that.) Not surprisingly I had a lot of people ask me about it. They asked what it was and why was I carrying it. Surprisingly, after I explained it to people, every one of them thought it was a great idea. A few people even asked me where I got it from. That was cool.

Right before the walk I was looking at the Wall of Hope that HopeWell had set up. The Wall of Hope is a wall of stars that people put the names of people in their lives who have cancer, who have passed away from cancer or for their caregivers. I made two stars. One for my Grandpa, Ed Lanter, who passed away this past January after fighting Prostate Cancer for over 2 years. One for Katie, Emily & Lilli. Since they were my primary care givers, they more than earned their star. Emily made one for me.

Now, for the walk. Since I am still recovering from the two surgeries back in March, Katie felt (i.e. insisted) that someone walk with me to make sure nothing happened. Since she was needed to keep an eye on Lilli and to help at the end of the walk, that job fell to Emily. Surprisingly, she was very enthusiastic about going on the walk with me. The one question we had was whether or not she would have to register and pay the registration fee. We explained the situation to Lily Burke, one of the people who we know that works at HopeWell, and she said that it was not a problem for Emily to walk with me, she just wouldn't have a bib number. YAY!

I have to say that one kilometer walk is one of the best times I have had with Emily. We didn't just walk the walk. We had fun with it! We were at the back of the walkers and just had an absolute blast! We synched our ipods so that we listened to a few of the same songs at the same time and just went to town with them. It was awesome!

After the walk was the closing ceremony. We had a few speakers, gave out some raffle prizes and the trophies for the race winners in all the age groups. The best part of the closing ceremony was when they gathered all the cancer survivors together in front of the podium and one of the team leaders spoke. She gave a stirring testimony about her own battle with cancer. She also spoke of some of her team members and how much they supported her. She even spoke of a couple of her team members who are no longer here. After she was finished speaking they played the song "I Hope You Dance" for the survivors. By the time that was finished, there was not a dry eye in the house. It was very emotional and very positive.

We had such a positive experience with today that Katie & I are thinking about getting a team together and doing the 5k walk next year!!!

I have to say "Thank You!" to all my family, friends and co-workers who sponsored me. Through all of their efforts I was able to raise $650.00 for HopeWell! That is just an awesome amount with only one weeks notice! While I got donations from a lot of people back in Cincinnati (some of which just amazed me), I have to thank my Mom, my Aunt Carol and my Mother-in-law, Pat, for their efforts. Aunt Carol was the one who got the ball rolling on my side of the family by getting my email out to everyone about the walk. Mom & Pat were the ones who had the unenviable task of collecting the donations from people and getting them to me in time for today. They did a great job and all the donations were able to be turned in on time!

Speaking of money. While we were at HopeWell on Saturday getting things ready for the race, we found out that HopeWell heard from the State Legislature about their request for funding. HopeWell will be receiving a total of $175,000.00 from the State Legislature!!! They will be receiving $100,000 from the State House of Representatives and $75,000 from the State Senate! According to a couple of people at HopeWell, rumor is that they were originally not going to receive anything from the State Senate, but the apparently the Senators changed their minds after hearing from Emily, Lilli and the Boddie's sons, Justin & Brandon. How awesome is that!

All in all, today was a great day!

'Til next time people...

I'ma fight 'til we see the sunlight...