Why do you Relay?
I relay
because I want to honor my cousin Cameron and the beautiful, though short, life
he lived. He was an incredible young man, who inspired and continues to inspire
me every day. At the age of 13, while
battling leukemia, he showed his incredible strength and spirit to everyone
around him. His positive outlook on life
in the midst of his battle inspired not only me, but many of those around him.
Cameron started his own blog while he was sick, and used his posts to inspire others.
IN one of his posts he wrote, "The
best kind of inspiration is the kind that makes you want to save a life." This is the statement that Cure4Cam works for.
I relay because I'm inspired by
Cameron...I relay because I want to help find a cure...I relay because I want
to save a life. We continue to fight the
battle against childhood cancer. Although
Cameron is not here, he lives on in all of us and inspires us to continue to
work for a cure. He never stopped, and neither will we.
Who was Cameron?
My cousin Cameron
was a very active athlete, runner and swimmer who balanced this active side
with strong academics and a love of technology. He was an extremely creative, inventive,
humorous person. Above all else however,
Cameron had an unwavering positive attitude that was infectious to anyone who
met him. At no time in his life did
these qualities become even more noticeable then throughout his battle with
cancer. On 11-11-11, at the age 13,
Cameron was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite
the devastation of his diagnosis, he never once gave up hope, and he continued
to live his life as the amazing talented upbeat young man he always was through
the difficult treatments he faced. It would have been easy for someone in his
situation to just let the experience tear them apart and change them, but Cameron
seemed to become more determined then ever to not only beat his cancer, but to
teach others about the experience and inspire others to make a difference in
the treatment of pediatric cancer. Cameron created a blog of his own to share his
story and inspires others (www.camcreator.com). It showed how wise he was
beyond his years and inspired anyone young and old to make the most of their
lives and look at every new opportunity as a challenge. Sadly, after a difficult 7-month battle, in
May of 2012 just after his 14th birthday, Cameron passed away. While he is gone, his spirit truly lives on in
so many.
How I developed Cure4Cam and the “HOOS Swam 4 Cam" Campaign:
Cameron was
an avid athlete his entire life. He played all kinds of sports when he was
young, but he was an exceptional cross country runner and swimmer. As The Cure4Cam
Childhood Cancer Foundation got its start we really focused on building off
Cameron’s talents and the communities surrounding them to gain support and build
awareness. At home, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, we started with several 5k runs
and relay events. We then reached out to the very strong swimming communities
surrounding Cameron and his family. Since
its development in late 2012, Cure4Cam has continued to grow throughout many
states, and has raised much needed awareness and funding for research.
To date, the organization has raised and
donated over $360,000. When I started attending school here at UVA, I knew I
wanted to bring Cure4Cam to our campus. I knew the best way to start that was
through my network as a student-athlete.
The men’s and women’s swim teams are never really in off season, so
running an actual event was not really an option especially early in the year
and through the winter. Instead, I
designed a virtual event for our team.
I
had our team commit to a one-month initiative to raise awareness about
childhood cancer, and to raise much needed money for childhood cancer research.
I called it “HOOS Swam 4 Cam”, and
introduced my teammates to my cousin Cameron and his story. This served to increase their support of the
effort even more. In order to connect
our UVA swim team with Cameron and Cure4Cam, we pledged to swim 238 miles collectively
a week, the distance from Cameron’s house (and the home of Cure4Cam) in
Downingtown, PA to the AFC in Charlottesville, Virginia. We successfully swam our committed total throughout
the month of February, and proudly wore our “HOOS Swam 4 Cam” caps and
t-shirts. Through the efforts of my
teammates, we raised $2600 for The Cure4Cam Childhood Cancer Foundation.
How I made “HOOS Swam 4 Cam” a reality:
The way
“HOOS Swam 4 Cam” became a reality was two-fold. First, I used the large supportive network I
had in my teammates on the UVA swim teams.
I am blessed enough to have an amazing support system here. I knew if I could connect them to Cameron’s
story and introduce them to the amazing things he did and wrote about, they
would be 100% supportive of the effort.
Once they read his story and his blogs they were inspired to help, and
were all willing to do what they could to make “HOOS Swam 4 Cam” a
reality. Their connection to Cameron
ensured an amazing effort from all of them.
Secondly, I knew I had to get the word out about the event and to not be
shy about asking for peoples’ talents to help or for their donations to support
us. Cure4Cam along with the talents of some of my teammates, constructed a
flyer about our efforts, and through the team, we got the word out to seek
support and donations.
I had to learn not
be shy in asking people for help and reminding my teammates to send it to family
and friends. I would advise anyone in a
similar position to connect people to your story and personalize it, and to use
the talents and resources of the people around you to help increase your
success. The more people are connected,
the more support you will conjure up.
How to inspire others to take similar action
One of the
most important ways to inspire others is to help them see they are capable of
making a difference. Cameron wrote about
how important it was to use our own talents to make a difference. Once people see their talents are needed and
supportive they are more likely to take action.
Additionally, it is important to always show people how their efforts make/made
a difference. A lot of large prominent foundations
do amazing things, but people are sometimes unsure of where their money goes
and do not see an immediate impact from their efforts. It is always important
to show and explain where money is going and what a big difference it is
making. Doing so helps to inspire
others to not only get involved, but stay involved as well.
Finally, I found
it helpful to ensure others feel connected to the initiative or foundation. It
was so important to introduce my UVA teammates to the Cure4Cam website and Cameron’s
blog before we really got started with our projects. Helping people feel like
Cameron was someone just like them made people want to give more of their time
to Cure4Cam and give more of an effort. That connection to a cause is
imperative to success.
Relay For Life would like to give a HUGE thanks to Shannon Rauth, a varsity Virginia swimmer, for sharing her amazing story and details about her successful campaign for Cure4Cam.
RelayLove,
Publicity Committee
