Cure Search Walk 2012

 Today was the 1st annual Cure Search Walk in Iowa City. 

We walked in memory of our sweet friend Becky and in honor of Simeon. We walked on Team Becky with her family and friends. Becky would have been the life of the walk. I miss her so much!

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Becky & Simeon bald friends. 2007

Both Simeon and Becky were diagnosed with leukemia in September one year apart from each other and became the best of friends! Before Simeon was diagnosed our family knew very little about childhood cancer. Now our family knows more then we'd like to know.

Before the walk they had a short program. Each of the families with an angel watching over us got a white balloon.  The balloons were released and floated up in the blue sky to the heavens to all the cancer angels there. We know so many sweet cancer angels in heaven, that the number of balloons released today were only a fragment of the angels we know.

Cancer has taken so many children from their families and friends!

Jan with Becky's balloon.

They also had all the kids in treatment and off treatment come up. They were each given a medal. It will NEVER grow old seeing Simeon being recognized with all the other survivors! Every time I see him in the Survivors group the feeling of gratitude for his health swells.

After the ceremony we went on the walk. It was a beautiful fall day with bright colors on the trees and a slight warm breeze.

Corrine the Cat.

Our family at the walk with the beautiful fall leaves behind us. 

Team Becky

We are so grateful that there is now a Cure Search walk in Iowa City. So many kids like Simeon and Becky are treated for cancer at the University of Iowa just up the road. We have taken a step back from the cancer world in the past few years, but always love the chance we have to see our cancer family!

Looking Back over the past 5 years

This is the update on put on Simeon's Carepage today.

WOW it's been 9 months since I have updated Simeon's carepage. Life has been busy and has been going so fast. The kids are all doing great. I wanted to update today because today is a BIG day for our family


Simeon at the Lemme Carnival Friday September 22nd 2006. 4 days before diagnoises

5 years ago today our sweet 5 year old Simeon who had just started kindergarten 5 weeks earlier was diagnosed with biphenotypic leukemia. The last week we have been talking a lot about those 1st few days and weeks, but especially about that afternoon in the Pediatric Specialty clinic when we got the news.

For my sake I needed to write down what happened around this time 5 years ago. You might already know the details, but I needed to put them on paper again. It’s therapeutic for me.

Sunday night Simeon woke in the night with horrible legs pains. He cried most the night from the pain, and it seemed no matter what we did to distract him, he was still in pain. In the morning we took him to our pediatrician Dr Boysen to get him checked out. Simeon's coloring and demeanor was off, so the dr ordered some blood work at Mercy hospital. I went and picked Johann up and we went as a family to the hospital for blood work. The doctor told me to talk with his teacher and see if the leg pain he'd been talking about for the last few weeks stopped him from playing with the other kids.

That night Nani and Papa (my parents) flew in for a visit.

The next morning we sent Simeon to school, talked with his teacher about his leg pain. Johann went to work, and my parents, Ammon and I took Corrine to her gymnastics class at the rec center. When we got to the van after class my dads cell phone rang. It was Johann. He said that Dr. Boysen had called him at work and told him to find me and get Simeon to the University hospital right away. He told him "something was wrong with Simeon." The doctor went so far as to call the school and to tell them to not let Simeon eat anything because we were on our way to pick him up for an apt at the U of I.

Something you should know about Dr. Boysen-he's a very laid back type of doctor. Fits my personality. He's not one to put kids on meds at every illness, he likes to let them try to get over their illness first. So when he called and was this urgent, we knew that something really was wrong.

We got to the house and a minute later Johann got there with Simeon. Simeon complained that he was hungry and was not happy about not being allowed to eat. My parents said “Go to the hospital, we’ll watch Corrine & Ammon.”

When we got to peds specialty clinic they had no idea we were coming. The message from our doctor hadn’t made it through yet, and they had no idea why we were there. After a few minutes I got a hold of Dr Boysen to find out what he knew and he just told me that “something was wrong with Simeon’s blood and that we needed to get more blood work done with an oncologist.” It didn’t register with me at that time what an oncologist was.

We went back and met Doctor Tannus. We did lots of talking about why we were there. He ordered some blood work and asked us to wait in the waiting room and he’d come out to talk to us.

After half hour or so, he came out. We were in the 1st row of chairs watching a movie. He sat down and said that his white count, platelets and his red blood cells were low, but that none of those rose a red flag by themselves, but there was something else in his blood work that made him want to do a bone marrow aspirate and biopsy his bone marrow. He brought us back to treatment room A where we met a nurse. The nurse put numbing cream on both of Simeon’s hands and arms, and some on his lower backs over his hips. We were told that it would take an hour to numb so we could go walk around and come back in an hour.

A friend had had her baby the day before so we thought we’d go visit her. We went up to the labor and delivery to see her, and found out she delivered at Mercy. We walked around the hospital, checked out the playground and went back.

We again went into treatment room A, where we were introduced to an amazing lady named Donna. She was a child life specialist and she was there to help distract Simeon during the procedure. The minute we met her, we loved her (and it’s still that way today). Mary Lou was our nurse. An IV was placed in his hand (1st try) and meds were given to put him under conscious sedation, and a bone marrow aspirate was done.

While we were waiting 2 people from our church that were working in the clinic came in to talk with us. I remember Neal Davis (I think that’s his 1st name) was in the room when Dr Tannus came in with results. He wanted to go talk in another room, but Simeon didn’t want us to leave. Donna got him to go with her to pick out a prize. He walked back in while we were talking. Dr Tannus told us Simeon had leukemia. They didn’t know what type yet, that would take a few days¸ but it was leukemia.

We were shocked and didn’t know what to say to Simeon. I asked Neal if he would tell Simeon, and he questioned me about it. He knew I needed to tell Simeon and that I could do it. We told him that his blood was sick and that he needed to stay in the hospital to get some medicine that would make him better.

We asked to go home that night, instead of being directly admitted. Since we live 10 minutes from the hospital they said they would let us go home, with a medicine for his liver.

Simeon right after being diagnoised. He ended with his IV being wrapped in purple. It became his "purple boxing glove!"


We left the clinic, called my mom and asked her if she would order some pizzas because we were going to have a party that night with all the family.

That night we had our families over and had a party to celebrate what we had. We wanted to start this journey with a smile on our faces, trying as hard as could be to be positive and face the challenges that were before us.

That night I talked with a friend Amy and told her the news. She was really sad and asked what she could do. We started talking about the City High parade the next day and that Simeon wouldn’t get to walk in it. He had been looking forward to the parade for weeks. She told me she would make buttons for the kids to wear so that Simeon “Could walk in the parade too.”

The next morning we went up to the school to tell them. We had a quick meeting with his teacher and the principle. Mr. Bacon’s (the principles) room was filled with leopards. He stood up, picked one off the top of his shelf and handed it to Simeon to take with him. (We still have that leopard today!)

We then headed to the hospital. I took a picture of Simeon and Johann walking in. They both have smiles on their faces. We went to the pediatrics specialty clinic. Mary Lou came and got us and walked us up to the temporary floor where the oncology patients were while the brand new multi-million dollar state of the art floor was being built. We got checked into our room and the whirlwind began.


Our family as we left the next morning (9-27-06) for the hospital.


Walking into the hospital on Sept 27th. Both of them are smiling!


The next evening the 27th was the City High Homecoming parade. Our friend Neil asked the dtrs if because Simeon hadn’t started any chemo’s yet, if he could have a 2 hour pass to go walk in it. The pass was approved. Getting that pass was like winning the lottery for Simeon. He was able to walk for 2 blocks with his friends. Those 2 blocks meant the world to all of us! All his friends had buttons on that said “I’m walking for Simeon.”


Simeon, Nick Cronk, Timmy Simmons and David Fillmore at the City High Homecoming Parade.


On Friday Sept 29th, Simeon had surgery to get his port-central line placed, and later that afternoon he got his 1st chemo infused through his port.


Simeon being silly before heading back to get his port in. We were watching the movie "8 Below" about husky dogs in Alaska as we waited.


After surgery showing off his scar and new port-the bump beneath the scar under his skin.

That night the doctor came in to tell me what type of leukemia he had. My mom was sitting by the window when they told me. She asked how to spell it, and she wrote it down for me. They gave me a book about leukemia, and that paper my mom wrote his diagnoses down on is still the bookmarker.

Its 5 years later and I can remember it like it was yesterday.

I found these pictures from the first few months that I just love and wanted to include.


Thanksgiving 2006 I love how even though Simeon is sick and life has been hard the last few weeks, all the kids are smiling and laughing and having the time of their lives.



Bald Boys-Johann was shinny bald the entire time Simeon was. That's Love!!!


Our 1st Radiothon-Simeon was on the radio to raise money for the Children' Hospital.


Today Simeon is a healthy and strong 5th grader. He has caught up in all areas except writing at school. He loves math, science, and reading. He super active and loves to play sports. Looking at him today you’d never know how sick he was just a few years ago.

Tonight we’re having lasagna and pizza, much like our spaghetti and pizza dinner we had 5 years go to celebrate. We’ll celebrate all the wonderful blessings that have come out of this trial. We had met so many amazing people, and have had some amazing opportunities in the last 5 years. The latest being a commercial for the University of Iowa’s Touch down for kids. It started airing lastnight. Simeon is the star of the commercial, who is making a comeback after being really sick in the hospital. It makes me tear up every time I watch it. It’s showing on KCRG channel 9. Maybe you’ll see his face playing football and smiling-he’s almost always smiling.

If I could go back and change things so that Simeon didn’t get leukemia-I honestly wouldn’t. It made him and our family who we are today. It’s made us stronger, closer and better able to handle the trials that come our way. We’ve learned to not sweat the small stuff, we’ve learned how to be a true friend to others, and we’ve learned to look for blessings even when things are really tough!

I can’t not tell you about the other kids too. Corrine is in 3rd grade and getting so tall. She is quite the runner and her and I are going to run a 5k in November. She has become such a social butterfly. Ammon is in 1st grade. He has just taken off with reading. He learned to ride his bike and swim in the deep end this past summer. Rebecca is 2 and is a talking, climbing, counting, potty trained little monkey. She has super ringlet, bouncy, curly hair. Our last kiddo got my curls-it’s been a proud moment for me!!

As I’ve said many times before-THANK YOU for checking up on Simeon, THANK YOU for praying for us, THANK YOU for being our friends, THANK YOU for cheering for all the kids fighting, THANK YOU for crying with us as we’ve said goodbye to friends. THANK YOU for being you. It’s all of you that have kept us going the past 5 years!!

The Smith Family
Johann, Kari, Simeon, Corrine, Ammon & Rebecca

Come back kid

A few weeks back Michelle from Children's Miracle Network called and asked if Simeon would like to be in a commercial. The commercial was going to feature him and a girl named Lilly. It was going to be about a kid who got sick, was treated at the hospital and is now better. She told me that Corrine & Ammon could also be in it as kids on the football team.
She sent me a video to watch to get an idea of what they were trying to do. After watching it I started to wonder where Simeon fit in and if he would be the comeback kid.
Thursday afternoon we met up with the crew from KCRJ, Michelle and the other kids for the commercial. It was after hearing the script that I realized that the whole commercial was about Simeon. Simeon was the comeback kid! He was the star of the commercial, even without any lines.
Filming the commercial took longer then I anticipated it would. Oh course the snack and drink I had set out for Rebecca were at home on the counter! Luckily a dad had some Gatorade's in his van and he gave one to Rebecca and there were port-a potties by the field! All the kids had 2 or 3 lines that they were to say. Corrine was the 2nd one up for her lines and she got nervous and didn't want to do it, so another girl took her place.
When it was Ammons turn his line was "And he got really sick." Well Ammon can't say "really" with a clear 'r' to save his life. Really kept coming out like "welly", so they decided to cut that word out of his line, so his line became "And he got sick". In the commercial they used Ammon saying his line and another child right after saying "Really sick".
Since Simeon didn't have anything to do during the filming of the lines, he became the 'best boy". He got to hold a sun reflector to help them get the lighting right.


Corrine got the courage up to say one line. She did a great job on her line and they wanted her to do another, but she wouldn't. In the commercial the line she said wasn't used by her but another child.
As part of the commercial they had the kids hold up letters to spell out "Go Simeon" and Simeon held up a Children's Hospital sign. They practiced holding them up in a wave formation, flipping them over at the same time, and holding them still and having the camera man walk in front of them.



Then the kids got to play football. Ammon got to throw the ball to Simeon and play along side him. Simeon got to be the star in the game and always got the ball and always got through to score!!



The commercial aired on the eve of Simeon's 5 year anniversary of being diagnosed with leukemia, which was significant to us. 5 years after being diagnosed and Simeon is healthy, strong and is making a comeback for himself.

Just a few weeks before the commercial Johann and I had been talking about how we were ready to take another step back from the cancer world. We decided to not do Light the Night this year with the LLS. With being off chemo for nearly 2 years and having Simeon doing so good, we felt like it was time as a family to take another step away from the cancer world. We want to be known for who we are now, and not the family who had a kid with cancer. We want the experiences that we went through not to define us, but to make us who we are. Our family is really for our comeback as who we are now, and this commercial came at a good time for that.

Make A Wish Football Game

We had beautiful weather for the annual Make A Wish Football with the Hawkeyes. The morning started out chilly and clear, but by the time the game started we were in short sleeve shirts and wishing we had brought hats. By the end of the game thick cloud had rolled in, but it was still nice and warm.

They took this picture right after we walked in the room. Simeon had already run off to play and Ammon looks pained, but he was excited to be there.

The day always starts out with a tailgating party in the field house. They have a jump house, activities and food before the game.
The families all sit together on the bleachers in the north end zone. Our seats get us down at field level, and mine also came with a big black padded goal post view!
During the game the kids did really good watching the game. Rebecca preferred to sit on dads lap, especially when he came back with popcorn and peanuts. She walked between us and sat with us, and we even tried to convince her that the popcorn bucket made for an awesome hat. We didn't get her interest in that very long! Corrine was a good sport about wearing the hat to make her laugh. She also took quite a few pictures on the camera. Lots of legs, sky and up close shirt shots! I took her out to go to the bathroom one time, and we stayed out and played for a little bit. She really liked when they did "I-O-W-A" around the stadium. We were "I", so she got to raise her arms up high and yell "I".

Here's a collection of the shots Rebecca and Ammon took at the game.






Ammon also got alot of pictures with the camera. He got more field and sky pictures. In the 4th quarter we were grateful for Angry Birds on Johann's phone to help him not be so bored. I thought sitting there for the entire game was hard!
After the game we went back to the tailgate party. The dance team, cheerleaders, Herky the mascot and the freshmen football players came to see us. The cheer squad did some routines for us and met with the kids. Then the football players signed autographs and we took a group picture with them.
Rebecca kept watching Herky at the game, pointing him out and waving to him. At the tailgate party he came to visit. She was waving at him and said she wanted to meet him. When it was her turn she ran right up to him and gave him a HUGE hug. The moment she let go, her eyes got huge and she looked scared and ran right back to me. From then on she would wave from a distance, but didn't want to get too close to him!



Corrine and her friend Mikayla (leukemia survivor) spent a lot of time in the jump house. Rebecca was in playing with them going up and down the slide. Mikayla and Corrine are just a few weeks apart, and Simeon loves to play with her older brothers.

It was such a fun day seeing lots of friends. We're very grateful that Make A Wish provided this day for our family. Going to a Hawkeye game wouldn't happen for a our family if it wasn't for this group.

Sibling Camp 2011

We had 3 very excited kids for siblings camp this summer! Rebecca was so excited she tried to pack herself inside of a suitcase to stow away!! She kept asking if she got "to stay at camp", over and over.


On the way there we stopped for lunch at a rest stop that had a fun tree to climb in. I took the opportunity while my monkeys were climbing to take some pictures of them. It amazing how hard it is to get 4 kids to smile and look at the camera all at the same time!



At camp we did our customary picking of the beds out before going to play at the carnival. Getting to be one of the 1st to pick your bed is always exciting and of course gives you more choice. Both Corrine and Ammon choose a top bunk this year which didn't surprise us at all.
Corrine is in North Star this year and Ammon is in Wildwood, and their cabins face each other. This is the last year that they will both be in the 3rd circle, because next year Corrine will be 9 and in the 2nd circle!!



After picking out their beds and meeting their counselors we headed to the carnival. The 3 bigger kids were very into games and winning tickets for prizes. Rebecca tried the bounce house but didn't really like it. When she got out Dad had a cotton candy that she promptly claimed as her own. She LOVED it and was a pink sticky mess before too long!! After all the kids won their prizes, we headed back up to the cabins to drop Corrine & Ammon off. It's always hard to say good bye to them, but each year it does get alittle easier.



This years camp theme was transportation. On Monday the had race cars come to camp, and the kids got to explore those. The Boone Scenic railroad goes right through the middle of camp. On Weds the train made a special stop at camp to pick the kids up for their own private ride.



Each week at camp the staff take pictures and post them on their blog. It's always fun to look at the pictures each day and try to spot the kids. We spotted Corrine this week at her Princess Party. She doesn't look very thrilled in the picture, but when we asked her about the party she said she had a good time, except that she had to wear a dress and she didn't want to!


This year Corrine was very confident heading into camp. Ammon felt more prepared for being away from us. Both of them during the week had 1 or 2 times of homesickness, but they were able to get past them quickly.

Camp Heart Connection holds such a special place in all our hearts. The kids look forward to and talk about camp all year long. It gives them a chance to meet new friends who have gone through similar experiences with a sibling and cancer. They get to have fun and to have a place to share their feelings and to be the center of attention. We love to hear the stories all year long from their week at camp.

American Cancer Society Gala

Our family was asked a few weeks ago to speak at the American Cancer Society's Linn Gala. This was such an honor to be asked out of all the families associated with The Children's Cancer Connection to represent their group at this gala. For the last few weeks I was going over and thinking about what we would talk about. As the day grew closer my anxiety grew. I'd be talking in front of 400 people at a very formal dinner.
Tonight was the Gala. We only brought Simeon and Corrine with us, because we knew it would be a very formal event and would be a long night. Corrine got a new pinkish/purplish sparkly dress and Simeon wore his new suit, that we order the week before we knew we were speaking here.


We were asked to talk about our experiences at The Heart Connection Camp, and why this camp is so important to us. It was decided that I would be the family spokeswoman. Simeon did talk about "shooting a gun at camp and how mom would NEVER let him do that at home!" I was surprised how comfortable I was once I started talking. This camp is so close to our hearts. The kids LOVE going to camp, so talking about it was so easy for me.
The 1st auction item (which was just after we spoke) was camperships to The Heart Connection camps. Each campership was $300. They had a goal of selling 130 camperships, because when they hit this goal, then an oncologist was going to donate 25 camperships. They started auctioning the camperships off and about 100 went fairly quickly, then things stalled. Simeon went up and asked that people please support the kids and help them go to camp. That did it! The last camperships were bought and the oncologist donated 25, bring the total to 155 camperships at a total of $46,000. Half of this money goes to camp and half goes to college scholarships.
When someone bought a campership they received a red balloon. Someone handed Simeon a balloon, and Corrine got a little jealous. A lady helping handing out the balloons saw this and told Corrine she'd get her a balloon too.
The auction was over and all the camperships were bought. Then all of the sudden a HUGE group of balloons came to our table. It was 25 balloons for the doctor who bought the 25 camperships, but instead of going to him, they were given to Corrine!!


When we sat down we started talking with the people at the table. A while later the man next to me was talking with an organizer of the event and they thanked him for helping out and buying the 25 camperships. I had no idea the person I had been sitting next to and talking to was the incredibly generous doctor who was helping so many kids go to camp. They had put us next to each other on purpose so we could meet each other. I was humbled by his humbleness. He didn't want people to know what he had donated. He just wanted to help the kids. After the auction was over Simeon was so sweet and went up and thanked him.
Pat McGraff (who owns a couple of car dealerships in Cedar Rapids) bought 15 camperships. After the auction we went over and thanked him for purchasing so many camperships. He was so nice and really wanted to help.
Simeon and Corrine got to draw the raffle prize winners. Simeon drew for the TV and year massage, and Corrine drew for the $1,00 visa gift card. Then later on they had a raffle for a diamond. They tried to sell 100 raffle tickets for the diamond, but only 40 sold. They had all the people who bought a raffle ticket come up. They picked a box and had to open them all at the same time. After all the people came up, there were still 10 boxes left on the table uncollected. Because of the uncollected boxes all the names were put into a bowl and Corrine got to pick the winner of the diamond. She made a ladies night!!


It was such a neat night of meeting so many generous people who wanted to help kids and adults with cancer and their families. We were trying to leave and it took over half hour to get out the door because we kept getting stopped and talked to. By the time we left in was 11:00pm and both the kids were tired.


Corrine was trying so hard to convince us to let her bring home all 25 balloons. In the end they both were able to bring home 2 balloons.

Dance Marathon 17

Each year we go to the Dance Marathon Marathon and each time we come home saying "That was awesome, fun, a HUGE party. It was great to see our friends. We love going to DM the marathon", and again this year we said those same things except we added "Ammon's nose looks awful!" (more on that to come!)

This year was alittle harder knowing that we wouldn't be able to see and play with Becky, and that her name would be on the 'Dancing in our Hearts' quilt and the candle burning by the quilts would also be for her.

Becky's name is on the bottom row in purple-3rd from the left.

This year the family room was a Dr. Seuss theme. They had all the activities named after part of a book or story. They hid 10 Cat in the Hat hats around the room, and if you found them you got your name in the raffle, and got to pick a prize from the "Cindy Lou Who's Prizes for you-who" prizes table. Simeon's 1st prize was a neon green Nerf football, Ammon got a Star Wars Lego kit, Corrine got a bag with body glitter, lip gloss etc., and Rebecca got a Princess Aurora baby doll. But the prizes didn't end there. We went home with over a dozen new toys thanks to the prize table. There was a fishing game and everytime you got a purple fish-you got a prize. We had enough prizes to fill the stroller!! They also had a raffle that the kids kept getting tickets for from the fishing game. (We never knew what the raffle was, and weren't in the room when they gave it away.)




This year we had a new group of students cheering Simeon on. The Morale captain was Mary. She did a great job of sending cards to us and keeping us in the loop of things going on. Last week a big box came to the house with blankets she had made for the kids.



Nicole told us that this was her 3rd Marathon, and we were her first family to come to the marathon. She said it made it more real for her to have the family they were dancing for being there to play with, talk to and get to know.


Friday night we were in the ballroom dancing. A student got down at Rebecca's level and asked if he could hug her. (Remember she's in a lion costume.) She walked right up to him and let him hug her. It was the 1st person she had gone to other then family. We realized while talking that he (Patrick)was a member of our group. Because of scheduling conflicts we hadn't been able to meet our group of students before tonight, so it was really neat to bump into them in the crowded ballroom.

Rebecca LOVED the family room. They had a blowup pool filled with balls. She spent so much time in there. She also fell in love with a Lion costume, and wore it all night Friday. She even had it on when we went on stage to be introduced. She was adorable in it and had her picture taken by so many people! On Saturday she didn't want to wear the lion costume, but rather a unicorn one. It was so cute when the students would see her walking in the costume. They'd all stop and look at her and say things like: "she's so adorable", "look at her". Rebecca ate up the attention!! During power hour I put her on my shoulders so she could see better what was going on. She thought that was the best place to be! She loved all the music and dancing and never seemed overwhelmed in the main ballroom.







Ammon had so much energy this weekend. He ran around chasing Manish, and being chased by Manish. He jumped and jumped and slid down the slide in the bounce house time and time again. He had a smile on his face almost the whole time. He was much more independent this year. He'd stay in the room with us, but he'd go off and play or get a snack then come back to us, then go off again. He had at least a dozen snowcones this weekend. He'd go get one, and come back with a handful of candy, but most of the candy he got was for other people not himself. He was being such a sweetie! Ammon had an accident towards the end of the marathon. He was running around in the main ballroom and crashed into someone. He hit his nose just right and it started bleeding really bad. Johann ran him into the First Aid area and they helped him out. It took along time to stop the bleeding and he ended up in a new shirt. After this he wasn't in such a great mood and ended up falling sleep on the ballroom floor in the midst of Power Hour where the room is jumping it is so loud and energized.








Simeon of course LOVES the Best Buy room. They have a dozen tv's with different gaming systems and games for the families to play. Simeon played alot with Chris (Becky's brother) Friday night and his friend Carter and him met up there Saturday morning. The neon green football he got from the prize table was the hit of the party! If Simeon wasn't playing football in the best buy room, he was throwing the ball around with someone. Carter and him had quite the game with some college girls going in the hallway. Towards the end of the marathon, he went up and danced on the stage and then with the students, but mostly he likes to play.






Each group has a student who can come be with the families during the event, this year it was Nicole and Corrine LOVED her. Corrine held her hand and they went everywhere together Friday night and Saturday morning. It's really fun to see Corrine attach so strongly to a student, but it's hard to get her to unattach when they leave! Friday night she kept asking where Manish was. She wanted to give him a hug and chase him. So many kids absolutely LOVE Manish. He's like a big kid who will play with them! During the night she started coughing and late Saturday morning it was obvious she wasn't feeling good, so she rested and played off and on Saturday. Friday night she found a cats mask in the dress up area and she never took it off all night. It was super cute, but super hot -according to Corrine.





Saturday morning we got to meet our entire group of dancers. We talked to them about our experience with cancer. They asked questions, some about Simeon's favorite soirts teams. It's a neat time for them to get to first hand see a family affected by cancer and to understand why this money is so needed. Mary had shirts made for our group.

The point of the marathon is for the students to raise money for the Iowa Children's Hospital, specifically for kids with cancer. This year they topped the last 2 years with the amount they raised. Patrick, from our group, told us that Thursday night he was going door to door trying to raise more money, and he told a lady about Simeon. She wrote him a check for what he thought was $50. Later when he looked at the check he realized that she had written it for $500.

$1,220,146.17

During Power Hour they hand out glow sticks to everyone in the room. During the last few minutes, they are throw in the air. It is so neat to see the neon green flying in the air as the music pumps out the last beats! At the very end, we all made a circle around the edge of the room. In the middle were all the glow sticks. The kids could hardly wait until they could go collect them. As soon as everything was said and done, we let them go collect-and collect they did. Thier shirts were so full they couldn't get anymore in them. We let them bring home a handful of them and the rest we made a HUGE pile with on the stage.



This was our 5th year going to Dance Marathon, and we're planning on going again next year and the year after that. These students do so much for the kids. This weekend they give them a party to always remember, and the rest of the year they give them hope, courage, a friend to play with and love. When Simeon has been off treatment for 5 years, he'll have a special graduation ceremony on the main stage complete with gowns and certificates. It's another way that they are cheering on these kids. WE LOVE DANCE MARATHON!!!