Running to support life
August 28, 2008
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Echo Glen participates in mini Relay for Life
Participants take part in Relay for Life at Echo Glen’s Children Center in Snoqualmie. Photo by Greg Farrar
More than 150 students spent part of their day Aug. 12 running a half-mile course to raise awareness for cancer survivors and patients at Echo Glen Children’s Center.
The day was hot, but the students at the state juvenile facility in Snoqualmie gladly donned American Cancer Society shirts and jogged their way around the course for about two hours in a shortened version of the event, which usually lasts 24 hours.
“My grandma had cancer and she had to fight it,” Brenda, a 16-year-old student, said during the event. “I admire all people with cancer - to do all the treatment, to lose their hair, but to still go out in the world and to fight it.
“This is a cool thing to do for her and for all the other people who are fighting it.”
The full names of students living at Echo Glen are not released because of state privacy laws. The school, built by the state in 1966, provides educational services for the students.
The school has 208 beds for students - between ages 10 and 21 - who come to it after having committed a variety of offenses.
But in addition to reform, counseling and classical education, the students also participate in certain community events that can be brought to them, like building basic-needs kits to send to people living with AIDS in Africa.
“They are still a part of our community,” said Denise DuBose, organizer for the Echo Glen event and for the larger Snoqualmie Valley Relay for Life, which was July 12 and 13.
DuBose became active in the American Cancer Society after losing her own mother to the disease in the early 1980s.
It is because of people like DuBose, and her daughter Karen DuBose, that students at Echo Glen are able to participate in Relay for Life for a second time in two years.
“I want them to know that they are connected to our community and that they are important,” Denise DuBose said.
“There is a lot of work that goes into it each year for the community and we appreciate that,” said Patti Berntsen, a director at the school. “We really believe in its educational value. There is that emotional value for some, but there is also the ability to understand what it is, so that when they get into the community, they may choose to be a part of it.”
“It just makes me happy that we’re out here working hard for people we don’t know and that don’t know me,” said Elena, a 19-year-old student. “If I had cancer, I would want someone to do this for me.”
This year, the students also decorated luminary bags to place around the track at the Snoqualmie Valley Relay for Life, which raised roughly $85,000.
Those same luminary bags returned to the school’s campus for the student’s own mini relay.
The DuBoses also brought the traditional fully set table for one, which symbolizes the people who have passed from cancer or those who can’t be at the event, and honed in on cancer statistics for the students.
“We really were hoping to get the opportunity to involve the kids, so that they have a little bit more understanding about the event and what they are supporting,” Denise DuBose said.
Karen DuBose echoed her mother’s words and said she hoped that the students would walk away with the lesson of helping others and increasing awareness.
“Even though we can’t raise money, we’re out here showing our support,” Elena said. “We’re giving our support for people who have cancer and can’t be out here or active.”
“I think it gives our kids here, who are typically known for doing offenses against society, it gives them a chance to give back,” said Gregory Bolden, school chaplain. “So many times, they are the ones taking from society. But here, they have a chance to give back, to socialize and to be positive in their community.”
“When I get out on the outs,” Brenda said of her upcoming release, “I want to keep doing this wherever I live.”
Reach Reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com.
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