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Rush Youth Football walks for cancer awareness
Kids line up to take part in the Elmwood Park Youth Football and Cheer cancer walk. | Jerry Daliege~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 26, 2012 6:04AM
ELMWOOD PARK — On a chilly Sunday morning, people bundled up and took to the streets to help fight a deadly disease.
Elmwood Park Rush Youth Football and Cheer organized the 2012 Cancer Awareness Walk, which took place Oct. 7. The two-mile walk started at Conti Parkway and ended at Thatcher and Fullerton avenues.
Melissa Corniel, who organized the walk, said more than 100 people participated.
“It was very awesome,” she said. “It was so cold, but they showed up.”
Participants paid $20 to participate. Half the proceeds went to the Loyola University Health System, headquartered in Maywood, for cancer research. The rest will keep the Rush youth football team and cheerleading program running.
Barry Schatz, associate director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, located on the Loyola University Health System campus, said any donation, big or small, is appreciated. The center has been in existence almost 20 years.
“The cancer center both treats and does research in all types of cancer,” he said. “We have expertise and a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of all types of cancer.”
Along with the donation, Schatz said the group’s recent activity had even more of an effect.
“A lot of it is much about awareness and keeping it in the public focus,” he said. “So much of it is a grassroots initiative. Doing something as visible as a walk spreads it through the community and spreads the consciousness throughout.”
