September 11, 2005
Light The Night
I have a ton of things to catch up with on this site, but I’ll start with yesterday’s event!
Through work, I became involved with the Light the Night Walk, an annual event to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I’d been fundraising, which I’m not terribly good at, but people were very generous. And to be perfectly honest, I received more money from perfect strangers than people I knew. To raise a bit more money, Karen, Maggie and I held a bake sale last week that turned into a big event. The only downside was spending the hottest weekend of the summer in a sweltering hot kitchen...but we earned a lot of money, so it was well worth it.
The walk took place yesterday at Angel Stadium, and it was quite an event! I took some photos for work, which I’ll share here. (Though there are no photos of me; the one picture someone took of me, the sun is shining directly behind me and I look like Santa Lucia or someone.)
There was sort of a fair in front of the stadium, before the walk began, and these are some of the booths that were set up. Companies were selling food items, raffle tickets for various things, t-shirts, etc. (And of course, all the money was donated!)
This is Karen with one of the banners. The Angels and UC Riverside were the two big sponsors...ah, but look, there’s our logo as well, nice and big! Yes, we were a major sponsor.
Another view of the booths. There were bounce houses, portable bowling alleys, etc. as well. All kinds of fun!
It’s a bit hard to tell, but everyone had on a Light the Night t-shirt or their team t-shirt. There was a real sense of community. You kind of felt like you knew everyone. A lot of the teams were “Team Michelle” or “Team Andrew” or the like, where a family was walking in memory of someone with cancer. Usually a child...it was terribly sad but uplifting that their memories were being honored like that.
Maggie and Karen with their balloons. Everyone was given a balloon...white for survivors, red for supporters. The balloons had a light inside, with a wire running down to a battery...very ingenious!
At dusk, everyone gathered in their groups and headed to the start line. The dj (oh yes, there was a grandstand with music and a dj, and opening and closing ceremonies) read off the team names as they began the walk. It went alphabetically, so we were exactly halfway down the line. (That “imagine” shirt is a teammate.)
These two made our banner. Ok, it wasn’t professional, but it was charming. The paint was glittery. And that logo is hard to draw; I’ve tried!
These UCI and Wells Fargo folks weren’t in a hurry to leave their tents...being alphabetical, they were at the very end of the line!
Our team. It was kind of a chilly evening, and the t-shirts were getting covered up by jackets pretty quickly. The walk went around the parking lot, then wend around through the inside of the stadium. A couple miles, all told.
This was part of the line behind us.
This is a blurry shot (I think I was trying to do it without a flash), but you can see the hundreds and hundreds of people in the line in front of us. And...did I mention my team was only halfway down the line?
This is a perfectly awful shot, but it’s of the line behind us. They’re stretching back all the way to the stadium, and I’m at the front of the parking lot, at this point.
Ok, this is taken from across the parking lot...and the line is still stretching back to the stadium. And imagine, there are just as many people in the line in FRONT of me! What an amazing turnout. The local high schools had sent bands and cheerleaders, and all along the route, the bands were playing and the cheerleaders were doing cheers and handing out water. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts were running around handing out water too, and the Anaheim Fire Department was driving their trucks around the parking lot, blaring their sirens and cheering us on, as well.
There’s a chain link fence behind Maggie and Karen in this picture, and all along the way, people had hung big photos of friends and family members that they were walking in memory of.
And under the Big A. You can see the lights in the balloons.
Once we were inside the stadium, the balloons looked even better. Oh, and surprise! The scoreboards were showing photos that had been taken earlier in the evening, and there my team and I were, larger than a bus!
After the walk, the party continued with raffles, music, and a closing ceremony. The light in my balloon lasted through the whole evening, and finally went out as I walking to my car.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a big charity event without Disney. When I worked at the park I loved being one of the VoluntEars, Disney cast members that would volunteer at events. I had a feeling they’d be there...and they sure were! They greeted us at the finish line. I got into a conversation with a couple of Storybook girls, which was great fun (they loved hearing about “the old days”), and even ran into a couple of friends who still work there! Anyway, I wore one of their lighted necklaces on the walk. The VoluntEars are great.
So that was the walk. I don’t know how much money they ended up raising, but I’ll post it here when I find out. A very fun evening. A very good cause.
If you’d like more information, their website is: lightthenight.org.
Posted by Lesley at September 11, 2005 08:33 PM