Fundraising event to be held in February to help support the 2015 5k run
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
Though it might feel like next May is still eons away as winter creeps continues to creep in, organizers of the Cancer Assault Challenge are kicking off things early this year, hoping and preparing for a bigger and better challenge than last year.
The 2015 Cancer Assault Challenge is slated for Sunday, May 17 out at Lutherdale Ministries, located off of Highway 12 north of Elkhorn.
This year, co-founder Julie Lopez said the group is looking to hold a kick-off event on Feb. 26 at the Simple Café in Lake Geneva. Tickets for the kick-off party will cost $10. Tickets for the event will be available in mid-December, according to the event’s Facebook page.
“May’s a long time away, February’s not so far away, but I just try to keep it out there,” she said about keeping it in fresh in people’s minds.
While tickets are normally $40 to attend the Cancer Assault Challenge, Lopez said those who attend the kick-off dinner in February will get their tickets for the run ticket for $30.
“So, it’ll still be $40 total, except you get to go out for dinner at Simple Café and their food is amazing,” she said.
Lopez said from the get-go the event has seen overwhelming support from the surrounding area, with hundreds of participants showing up, 442 last year alone.
“Normally, what I’ve heard from other people that have done the Reindeer Run and stuff like that, ‘oh, your first year you’ll have like maybe 80 people,’” she said about the event’s first year. “So, we planned on 80 people. We had 387.”
This year, she said they’re planning for more than 500 people as the event continues to grow, especially due to the multiple courses last year ranging from extreme to “couch potato.”
According to Lopez, proceeds collected from the event go towards the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. The Cancer Assault Challenge has been Walworth County’s number 1 fundraiser for Relay for Life for the past two years, according to Lopez.
Bringing the county’s communities together
In bringing together the Cancer Assault Challenge, Lopez said they didn’t want to just raise money for cancer research; they wanted to help to further bring the community together.
Now, Lopez said the event has teams, both adults and high school students, that come together from all over the county.
“Whitewater High School actually bussed their team in on a bus last year,” she said.
Last year, Lopez said when she had learned about the Delavan Adventure Club, an afterschool club for Delavan Students, she viewed it as an opportunity to get area students further involved with their community.
“So, I went to them and I said, hey, how would you guys like to build one of the obstacles,” she said. “We said, you guys did such a great job, why don’t you come run the event.”
Their involvement last year left a mark on the students, and once again, they’ve come to the Cancer Assault Challenge, this time offering their services.
“I was like, this is so great because now we’re getting these kids to help,” Lopez said.
She said other organizations help too, such as the Elkhorn High School Honors Society.
“It’s kind of what we wanted to do with it,” she said. “We wanted to raise money, but we wanted to be a melting pot of kids learning how to give back to the community.
“Folding letters and stuffing envelopes for somebody, that’s how we got our hours in school, but this is so much more fun and we get them as involved and details as they want.”
Lopez credits her son for coming up with the idea, looking for a fun and exciting way to raise money for the cancer society rather than through bake sales and the like.
“He said ‘it will be really easy mom,’” she said.
Lopez said the event has even branched out of the local areas, noting kids coming from as far as Stevens Point and the University of Chicago medical school.
“It’s pretty cool considering this will only be our third year,” she said.
“I just thought it would be so much fun to get more and more kids involved and not just kids from Elkhorn. Kids from Delavan are working with kids from Elkhorn, and they’re working with kids from Whitewater.”
Lopez said with competitiveness sometimes getting the best of students, this has offered up a way for the students to come together and work together for a great cause.
“This is a great way to teach kids how to give back, but it’s fun. It doesn’t seem like work because they’re having so much fun,” she said.
Lopez said in the past she has worked with groups who were interested in participating to make sure they were able to do so as it’s not only an event to raise money, but also a learning platform for students.
Lopez said the group has even partnered with the Army Recruitment Office in Burlington.
“He contacted me and said, ‘hey, we want to be a part of it,’” she said. “So they came out and built an obstacle.”
This year, Lopez said the Army recruiters have joined the planning committee for the event and are helping with course design.
“He said, well, the Army has a lot more resources than you,” she said. “He said we need to do this, we need to do that, it’s going to be great.”
Lopez said the support from the community continues to grow each year with more and more coming to her looking for ways to help.
As for runners, Lopez said they have runners of all different age groups, noting a pair of older sisters about to turn 65 who ran because it was something they wanted to do and was on their bucket list.
Originally planning to run the couch potato course, Lopez said she convinced them to run the extreme course.
“I said no, if you’re going to do it as a bucket list item let’s do the extreme, because if you can’t do it just by pass it, because what if you could, what if you could just make it through, wouldn’t it be amazing,” she said.
And sure enough, the sisters made it through and it was something they’ll never forget.
“They called me last year,” she said. “’We have our own team, we’re the bucketlisters,’ and they were all 65 and older.
“They’re just so excited that they can come out and do it.”
Lopez said for the future, she intends to keep the event going strong, working with experienced people to provide the best possible experience for attendees.
“My husband is like, ‘it’s become your second job,’” she said. “It’s become, well not my second, but maybe my third job, but it’s good. It’s a good thing.
“We’re raising money, but we’re changing peoples’ lives.”
For more information
For further information about the event, visit www.cancerassaultchallenge.org. The event’s website includes links for photos from last year’s event, volunteer and sponsor information, means to donate, facts and frequently asked questions about the event.
