Love, support ... in all colors
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on April 26, 2015 1:50 AM
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The family of L.A. Warrick releases a lantern in his memory as dozens of other paper lanterns float upward above them at the fourth annual Cures for the Colors Family Night Friday at Wayne Community College. More than a dozen members of Warrick's family members gathered to release two lanterns for the man who passed away five years ago from bladder cancer.
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Isabella McKeel, 6, hugs her father James as she watches the balloon she released during the annual Cures for the Colors Family Night. Isabella was diagnosed with leukemia on March 25, 2013, and is still receiving chemotherapy. James spoke briefly to the crowd about how important the help provided by Cures for the Colors is to families like his.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Holly Hardee and Teresa Hoyt untangle balloons being released for childhood cancer awareness Friday night during the Cures for the Colors family night at Wayne Community College. 125 gold balloons were released, starting with two balloons released by Isabella and Chase Hooker, 4, who is also battling leukemia.
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McKinsey O'Quinn, 2, and Eva Kate Davis, 7, slide down an inflatable, one of the many activities planned for the evening.
It took her a lot longer than most of the others on the track Saturday, but 88-year-old Olga Markowitsch persevered.
When she was finished, she had walked a mile -- all to help those who are battling cancer.
She knows how tough it can be. She has had cancer twice.
Mrs. Markowitsch was one of several hundred people who gathered for the fourth annual Cures for the Colors events this weekend at Wayne Community College.
The retired military nurse from Yugoslavia had major surgery for her diagnosis of breast cancer back in January.
She decided she could not miss the chance to help others.
"I wasn't sure if I could walk this year," she said. "We need to do this because it supports the poor people who not only have cancer, but who don't have enough money for the medicines and all those things they need."
This was Mrs. Markowitsch's fourth year of participating in the event. Southeastern Medical Oncology Center nurse Betty Thibeaux walks with her each year.
"I walk with her because I love Miss Olga," she said. "She's a wonderful person."
Mrs. Markowitsch even gets the military at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base to do walks for her to help raise money for Cures for the Colors.
Randi Stallard, 31, also walked Saturday -- while pushing her 5 1/2-month-old son, Braden, in his stroller.
This was her first time at the event.
"It's the two-year anniversary of my mother-in-law's passing from cancer and my mom died of cancer when I was really young," she said. "We try to do anything that we can to raise money. When I'm walking, it makes me think of my loved ones who have died of cancer."
Mrs. Stallard said the atmosphere at Cures for the Colors was a positive one.
"There are a lot of children out here and they seem pretty excited to be here," she said. "It's nice to see so many families out here and a lot of younger generation, especially so early on a Saturday morning and this is what they're spending their time doing."
Joining her was her 13-year-old daughter, Lauren.
"I had a grandma who had lung cancer and it's pretty important to me" she said. "It makes me feel good that I can help people."
Walking with them was 14-year-old Ashton Cobb, who had two grandparents die from different kinds of cancer, and whose mother is a cancer survivor.
"It makes me feel good that there's a chance to help other people who are going through what my grandparents went through," she said.
This year's event began Friday night with between 200 and 300 yellow balloons being released into the sky. That was followed by the release of 600 sky lanterns, most of them white in memory of a cancer victim or to honor a cancer patient or survivor, but some purple ones to honor caregivers.
"The sky lanterns were different and beautiful," said Dr. James Atkins with Southeastern Medical Oncology Center, sponsor for Cures for the Colors.
"I was talking to somebody Saturday morning and they said they were at home and saw the lanterns and one of the little children asked the mom was Jesus coming, because there was the sky filled with a line of sky lanterns crossing the sky."
The festivities continued Friday night with music and dancing.
Saturday morning there was a timed 5K run, an untimed 5K and team run and a one-mile fun walk.
People came from as far away as Wilmington to participate, Atkins said.
He said the first year the event raised $30,000. Last year, it raised a quarter of a million dollars through all the other events held for Cures for the Colors.
"It's about people helping people," he said. "And it's growing. Most of us are very blessed. But we've got to help each other. Charity begins at home."
And the money stays at home, Atkins said.
"This event raises funds only for people who live in eastern North Carolina," he said.
Those receiving help from Cures for the Colors must have been diagnosed with cancer and must have had surgery, radiation or chemotherapy within the past 12 months.
"Each person can get up to $1,000 a year, based on income, not on assets," Atkins said. "Seventy-five percent of the money actually goes to cards and food cards. And 25 percent ends up going for things like rent and utilities. Sometimes people need help with prescriptions and it will go for that, too."
Atkins said he sees a lot of need for help in the eastern part of the state.
"There's a lot of people here in eastern North Carolina who are hurting financially," he said. "Maybe they're doing OK paycheck to paycheck, but you throw cancer in the middle of that and all of a sudden their world unravels."
He said Cures for the Colors has been a godsend for many.
Like the man who recently died of lung cancer.
"If it wasn't for the funds he got from Cures for the Colors, he would have had no food when he was alive," Atkins said. "He and his wife got evicted from one place and ended up in another and they were really low on their luck."
Or the man who had neck cancer and needed radiation.
"He said he lived 18 miles away and had a car, but he didn't have enough money for two gallons of gas a day five days a week for six weeks to get treatment," Atkins said. "We got him a gas card and he got his treatments and he could be cured."
Atkins said patients who cannot get to treatments cannot get the care they need to survive.
Then there's the simple need for something to eat.
"We had a patient one Thanksgiving and our office manager was giving her a box of food and the patient just broke down and cried," Atkins said. "Without this food, there would have been nothing at Thanksgiving for her and her family.
"We started Cures for the Colors because we saw the need for it."
There will be another Cures for the Colors event Sept. 26, a 5K in Wilson. And Dancing for the Cures, coordinated by Dr. Charles Zwerling, will be held in the fall at Walnut Creek Country Club.