Sydney Says Thanks: 'Strike Out' Cancer Raises $30,000

The girl in the gigantic pink floppy sunhat on Sunday got the whole town together to raise money for pediatric cancer. a Heritage Middle School seventh grader, may be fighting a rare bone cancer, but she is determined to kick this cancer in the butt!

Her courage shines in her daily on CaringBridge.org, a nonprofit organization that provides free websites to help family and friends share information and support. (You can read Sydney's journal here).

writes nearly every day, even on days when the nasty side effects of chemotherapy take their toll.  She’s preparing for surgery this week at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. And she writes about that too. If she’s up to it, and some days she’s not, she ends her journal with a riddle:

What punctuation mark is used in writing dance music?
A polka dot!

On Sunday night, Sydney wrote to say thanks to the many supporters who helped make her first “Strike Out Pediatric Cancer” a success. With permission, we share excerpts of Sydney’s journal.

“When we got there, it was freezing! Mostly because it was windy. Then it got a lot less windy so we had really good weather. But, for some reason, I'm always cold so I was cold anyway. For sun protection I was wearing SPF 100 sunblock and a gigantic pink floppy sun hat and really big sunglasses.

I was too tired (mostly lazy) to go on my crutches so I stayed in my wheelchair the whole time. It was GREAT. There was a HUGE turnout -- a lot more people than I had expected to come.

I am terrible at judging, but from my mom's perspective, she said it looked to be about 1,000+ people. There were certainly a lot of people there. I had so much fun. There was the walk, the run, the home run derby, face painting and tattoos, DJ, blow up obstacle course, and of course, food.

We sold out of bracelets and shirts quickly. Roughly, we raised about $30,000 total. THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!! That's AMAZING.

I am soooo happy that my first fundraiser was such a success and that we raised so much money to help find a cure for this terrible disease. I have SO many people that I would like to thank. But, if I named them all, I would be here forever. So many people worked very hard on this event to make it perfect and donated many things so everyone would have fun. Thank you to EVERYONE that took any kind of part at all, it all made such a difference. All the donations, volunteers, and planners really did help a ton.

Speaking of planners, there was one person who worked extra hard on making the event so great. My dad worked so hard tirelessly at all hours of the day to perfect every slight detail. He's been so busy trying to plan such a big event in so little time and all of his extreme efforts paid off a TON in the end.

Also, I would like to thank everyone else. Everyone who came, couldn't come, has been following me, supporting me, EVERYONE. It all makes such a difference. Everything that happened today would not have been possible without all of you, coming to support me and donating time and money to the cause. All kinds of support are so generous and I am so grateful to have so many supporters.

Once again, a HUUUUUGE thank you to EVERYONE for EVERYTHING. It was such an amazing and special day. I am very happy :) Love,
Sydney

PS: What punctuation mark is used in writing dance music?
A polka dot!

PPS: What doesn't get any wetter no matter how much it rains?
Your living room couch.