Families lap Lake Calhoun for cancer

More than 500 people walked the 3-mile path around Lake Calhoun on Sunday in support of kids with cancer.

The walk was hosted by two of Minnesota’s leaders in pediatric oncology: the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota — but it was the product of a grassroots core of people invested in curing cancer.

Many teams of fundraisers gathered before the walk in matching shirts. A clown made balloons for children like 5-year-old Edra Clements from Rochester, Minn., who has been in remission from a cancerous bone tumor for two years.

The family went through 17 rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. Edra just started kindergarten, and the walk was her family’s first big fundraising event.

“We’re just getting far enough out from it that we can deal,” said Lucinda Clements, her mother.

When CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a nonprofit foundation that runs fundraising walks in cities nationally, called pediatric oncology leaders at the two hospitals about doing a Minneapolis walk, a committee of roughly two dozen research staff members, family members and care providers formed, said Amanda Galster, a research manager at Amplatz.

 The committee created sign-up sheets for different tasks. Several nurses took charge of recruiting 30 volunteers to make the event happen, and another group worked on logistics like tables, food and an emcee.

“These were the people who were closest to the patients — who feel passionate about what we do every day, rather than hospital administration,” Galster said.

At one of the first committee meetings, Galster said organizers talked about a realistic fundraising goal and decided on $50,000. They reached their goal a week before the walk and continued fundraising. By Sunday afternoon, they had raised more than $75,000.

Dr. Brenda Weigel, the University of Minnesota’s division director for pediatric hematology and oncology, spoke at Sunday’s event.

About one of every 300 children in Minnesota is diagnosed with cancer every year, she said — one in every school.

The survival rate for children diagnosed with cancer has risen from 10 percent to almost 80 percent, she said.

Amplatz is one of only 20 hospitals in the country, and the only one in the five-state region, with “Phase One” status — approval to test a new drug for the first time in a population.

Lexi Maciej, a pediatric oncology nurse at Amplatz, walked with her family on Sunday. Maciej said that while she wants to raise money to improve life expectancy for her patients, it’s equally important to focus on celebrating patients’ personal milestones.

“The support a young man receives when returning to the field after cancer has forced him to leave the sport he loves. The first joyous days of kindergarten for a young girl following years of treatment,” she said. “We also honor those for whom cure was not possible. Those children who are no longer physically present in our lives but who will never leave our minds and hearts.”

The largest team at the walk — with about 70 people — raised $15,000 in honor of Max Bulman, the infant son of University alumni Corey and Mimi Bulman. From Max’s birth Oct. 2, 2010 until March 2, 2011, the Bulmans slept on a futon in his room at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics.

“Our last year has been really wrapped up in the fight,” Corey Bulman said. He called the outpouring of support at the walk “awe-inspring.”

Ultimately, the walk raises money for CureSearch to fund research trials by the Children’s Oncology Group, through which both hospitals  conduct research.