What will you run for?
It is with great appreciation that we welcome CH2M
HILL as Presenting Sponsor of Run for Ribbons 2013!
CH2M HILL has generously supported the Tri-Cities
Cancer Center for many years. Their contributions
support a variety of programs and services and a generous
commitment in 2009 has afforded our community the
cancer resource library located here at the Tri-Cities
Cancer Center, The Ralph R. Peterson Resource Library.
CH2M HILL has also contributed numerous man-hours
to ensure the success of our community supported, not-
for-profit, Cancer Center. We look forward to their staff
volunteers helping us to host a successful run/walk at
Howard Amon Park on April 27th!
We hope you will join us in raising community cancer
awareness and funds to help support cancer patients
in need of the various free-of-charge services we offer
here at the Tri-Cities Cancer Center. Visit us online to
register or learn more:
www.runforribbons.org
or call
509.737.3413.
What: Run for Ribbons & RibbonFest Health Fair
5k and 1mile Run/Walk
When: Saturday, April 27th, Check In 8:30
Walk Begins 10:00 am
Where: Howard Amon Park in Richland
Registration fee: $25 Adults / $15 Youth
SATURDAY April 27th, 2013
When my family moved to Richland from Portland
in 1985, we were in the midst of one terrible winter,
filled with snow and ice. I was a kindergartner,
lucky that my parents had chosen a neighborhood
full of families with children around my age. The
snow and ice had made it difficult to get out
and meet new friends, though. When a
little boy in a snowsuit showed up in
our backyard peering through
our patio, amidst piles
of snow, I found my
first friend in the Tri-
Cities. Nick was in
kindergarten, just like
me, and lived right next
door. We became fast
friends, riding bikes, playing
in our neighborhood park,
walking to school together.
As we grew older and he and
his family moved to Tacoma, we
still kept in touch, discussing our
shared love of music and the trials
a n d
tribulations of junior high and high school. Then
the shocking news came that Nick had cancer
. . . it was all so hard to comprehend. I had
never known someone with cancer, especially
not someone my age, my friend. He faced this
challenge with the same wise-cracking spirit that
had made him one of the most fun people I
had ever met. Even with all of his spirit, he
lost his battle with leukemia on October
29, 1997, one month and a few days
after his eighteenth birthday.
When I started working at the Cancer
Center, naturally, I was reminded of
Nick often. When we began the
Run for Ribbons, I thought often
about our tagline, "What will
you run for?" It reminded
me of the things he missed,
like graduations, college,
weddings and birthdays and
how losing him made the world a little
less bright. But it also reminds me of that
same little boy looking through our patio door and
how he lived every day with energy, spirit and a
zest for life and how lucky I was to know him.
~ Elizabeth McLaughlin, Foundation Director