Kids For A Cure is a youth-focused version of Relay For Life that empowers children to feel they, too, are making a difference in the fight against cancer! It encourages students to work together for a common interest, and allows them to reach out with support to fellow classmates who may have been deeply affected by cancer. The excitement that their involvement generates gives the student a sense of satisfaction of participating in community service. It also fosters a sense of teamwork when everyone is aware of, and working toward, a common goal.

Kids For A Cure also provides an opportunity to educate children on cancer and how it can be prevented. It provides the platform to bring such topics as nutrition, physical activity, sun safety, and tobacco prevention to the classroom in a fun, exciting, and educational way.

In 2007, 26 schools, day care facilities and a business representing 11,627 students in the Pottstown area participated in the Kids For A Cure/Teens For A Cure program.  This program united five school districts as they worked together to design a program that would empower our children to feel that they too are doing something in the fight against cancer.  Students were proud to participate and truly understood what they were contributing to as they participated in activities that acknowledged cancer, their own feelings, and what they are able to do about cancer and their own health.  Teachers and administrators were touched in ways that offered them the opportunity to help their students and share their own experiences.  While the program was designed to empower and educate children, an added benefit that resulted from their enthusiasm in participating in the various activities, was over $26,000 was raised to be applied towards cancer research, education, advocacy and patient services.

Each participating school received an American Cancer Society Mini Relay kit that was filled with educational materials, curriculum plans, posters, puzzles and games based on nutrition, physical activity, sun safety, and tobacco-free.  Many schools directly incorporated these materials into their daily lesson plans which directly support the ACS Mission Delivery goals.  

In addition to using the kit for educating students, schools were encouraged to also incorporate activities revolving around five separate projects:  Links Against Cancer, Dimes Make A Difference, Student Luminaria, a Coloring Page and a Mini-Relay.   It was up to each school to decide the level of involvement in each project based on the unique culture of their school.  Some schools used these projects as fundraisers, other just as awareness activities.  

Links Against Cancer –Is a project in which each participating school constructs a paper chain containing a link for every student, administrator, teacher, and staff member in their school.  Everyone is given a link to sign and decorate.  The links are then connected to create one large school chain which is displayed within their school prior to the Relay.  On the day of the Relay, each school brings their assembled school chain to the event along with as many school community members as possible to help carry it.  All the schools connect their chains into one huge “Chain of HOPE” that is carried by the student volunteers on a victory lap around the track ending under the main tent as the kickoff to the Children’s Hour ceremony.  The goal is to have enough chain to reach the entire way around the track. 

Dimes Make A Difference – After the 2006 mini-relay in his school, Carlos Fuentes-Brown found a dime on the sidewalk as he walked to school.  He picked it up, carried it to school, and gave it to his Kindergarten teacher (who is a cancer survivor) with a message “Please use this dime to cure cancer.”  This small act of kindness was the beginning of a coin collection campaign that was embraced by not only the participating schools, but also the entire Pottstown community.  People collected dimes in their empty water bottles (which hold $92.00!), Gatorade bottles, buckets and jugs.  Students brought coins in from home to fill their class bottles.  They were collected weekly, condensed, and counted as part of their math curriculum.  This campaign resulted in over $20,000 in coins being collected community-wide in 2007!

Student Luminaria – Thanks to the Helping Hands For Kids fund every student in each participating school received a white luminaria bag to decorate in honor or memory of someone affected by cancer.   They acted as art therapy when you saw and read the prayers and messages to parents and family members who have passed away and are missed, or who are struggling with or survived this illness.  The messages on the bags were magnificent and heart rendering – “Walk in the Relay and save 1,000,000 lives!”, “HOPE – I feel better already”, “Please don’t die Mom”, “Hang in there the pain will be over soon.”  Over 10,000 luminaria bags with children’s versions of  Relay logos, HOPE with each letter defined, and endless interpretations of how to help people with cancer glowed like a giant rainbow throughout the night as they filled the away bleachers with only the ones that spelled the word HOPE removed.

Helping Hands for Kids is a fund that underwrote the Student Luminaria project.  Donations were accumulated from individuals and businesses that were interested in donating funds that would be used to empower children.  In addition to the monetary donations, luminaria bags and the wood for the block production were donated keeping expenses to a minimum.

Coloring Page - A coloring page designed around the Relay theme of “Time” – an alarm clock with the wording “It’s Time For A Cure” at the top and “I Relay For ______” at the bottom.  Students took these pages home to color and returned them to school to be hung in the hallways next to their rooms.  Extra pages were also available for family members.  Some school teams laminated the pages and hung them in their tent at the Relay.

Mini-Relay – The Friday before the start of Saturday’s Relay students took time out of their routine schedule to walk a lap or two around their track or building to honor or remember those who have been touched by cancer.  When possible, schools all walked at 2:00 pm to show they are united in the fight against cancer.