A local effort organized by a Pioneer senior resulted in nearly $1300 raised for the Courage for Carly Fund at Roswell Park Cancer Center.
ABOVE: Pioneer's Peer Helpers.
Arcade Village Park was the site as Peer Helpers and member Sophia Kehl held the Walk for Hope on June 4.
Sophia created this idea inspired by the Canter for Cancer, which was an event she always looked forward to when she was younger. She also wanted to practice her event-planning skills for her future major in the Marketing/Fashion Merchandising Cooperative program at Canisius College.
Guidance Counselor Kali Supples said, "Sophia is a member of our Peer Helpers program at Pioneer of which I am the advisor. She asked me to be her adult representative as she planned the event and then she recruited Peer Helpers to assist her with the planning."
Sophia (at left, above) and the crew went around to local businesses to ask for raffle donations. Some donations included a bounce house from Best Vision, 10 sheet pizzas from John & Mary's, and raffle items from Nicolo's, Nellie’s, Landpro, McDonalds, Main Street Grill, Creekside Fabrics, Bearded Bison, Theo's, Main Street Winery, Arcade Fitness, Pink Zebra, Vidler's, Fantasic Sam's, and Arcade & Attica Railroad. The students made all of the baked goods and supplied yard games.
The actual walk was two to four laps around the park, based on individual preference. Total donation going to Courage of Carly Fund at Roswell was $1,291.
Sophia took the success of the walk in stride. "I’ve been told from people that the turnout was nice and I would agree. I think we all worked very hard and we should be proud of raising as much money as we did. The turnout wasn’t huge but we were successful in our goal of making a difference.
"For a first annual event it was pretty fulfilling. I learned that a lot more work goes into planning these kind of events even down to the smallest details, which one wouldn’t normally think of. Sometimes things get overwhelmingly stressful, and it’s more than okay to rely on your peers for help. It’s all trial and error and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing."