The Sprinkle Pink campaign against breast cancer has morphed into a colorful bouquet and the first Colors of Cancer campaign is officially under way. Teams, identified by color, are now being formed to raise money to combat the many different kinds of cancer that exist. One of those teams, the Lavender team, is raising money to help out with every kind of cancer. Members of the Lavender team met at Mikesell’s Jewelry last Friday to kick off their own fundraising efforts.
Shannon Urso and her daughter Isabella are both on the Lavender team.
“I’m on the Daly Hospital Foundation Board and we needed some team leaders,” said Shannon. She said she chose the Lavender team because her mother-in-law lost her husband to cancer, she lost a brother-in-law this summer to cancer, and she lost her best friend from high school at age 31 to cancer. Not only that, but some of her other friends are cancer survivors.
“So cancer has really affected my family a lot,” she said.
Her daughter Isabella said, “I’ve always thought of cancer as something horrible and I want to help out in any way I can.”
Susan Wetzsteon said that she got deeply involved in the Sprinkle Pink campaign about four years ago following the death of her business partner and close friend, Jamie Grant, who died from breast cancer.
Then, when the Colors of Cancer information first came out, Wetzsteon was struck by a Facebook post by Stephanie Roebke about the need to have a greater awareness for all kinds of cancer. It moved her to join the Lavender team.
Stephanie Roebke’s daughter, Michelle, is now seven years old. But at four years of age, Michelle was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Roebke said it took almost six months from the time the symptoms began to show up before they got an accurate diagnosis. That was followed by another two years of cancer treatment.
At that time, there was no treatment for that type of cancer in Montana so it meant travelling back and forth to Spokane.
“It’s a very intense treatment regime and there were other families there going through the same thing,” said Roebke. Her Lavender team t-shirt has the names of all the young children that were in the treatment center along with her daughter Michelle.
So far, Michelle is one of the lucky ones. She has been off treatment for a little over a year and is in remission.
“We hope it stays there,” said Roebke. “Her visits to Spokane are getting less frequent and that’s a good sign.” Roebke was happy to say that Michelle couldn’t be at the team meeting because she was in class at Stevensville Elementary School and they had a test that day that she didn’t want to miss.
“Just like a normal kid,” said Roebke. She said, “September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and it is very near and dear to my heart. I don’t post a lot of things on Facebook, but I do make several posts every day during the month of September to bring more awareness to anybody that will read it, honestly, just because most people around here, in the state of Montana where there is no children’s hospital, are not aware of the fact that there are these kinds of cancers.”
To boost their fundraising effort the team is raffling off a “Colors of Cancer “ quilt. The quilt was made by Susan Wetzsteon, machine embroidered by Carole Steigerwalt, and quilted by Claudia Williams of Patchwork Quilts. The quilt contains the whole spectrum of colors representing every kind of cancer.
A necklace containing gems of seven ‘colors of cancer’ designed by Cindy Mikesell is also being raffled off. The necklace is valued at $1,350.
Raffle tickets for the quilt and the necklace are being sold for $5 each or five for $20. The raffle drawing will take place on October 31 at Mikesell’s Jewelry on Main Street in Hamilton.
Another quilt is in the making that will also be raffled off at the 5K run on October 20. This quilt is the brainchild of Mary Wood. Survivors of cancer can put their hand in a paint bucket of the color corresponding to their cancer and make a hand print on the quilt.
Jean Schurman, who helped originate the Turn & Burn Barrel Race fundraiser for the Sprinkle Pink campaign, was inspired by Wood’s concept and will have paint buckets on hand at the barrel race so that cancer survivors can put their hand prints on the horses.
The neat thing about all the competition between the teams to raise money, according to Wetzsteon, is that, in the end, there aren’t any losers… except maybe the cancers that are diagnosed early enough.