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09/04/2018 12:00 AMIvoryton resident Kristen Alexander invites everyone out to the Essex Elementary School on Saturday, Sept. 8 for the Be a Voice fundraiser. The event, now in its fourth year, transforms the grounds into an evening of fun, entertainment, good food, live music, and an outdoor movie theater.
Alexander’s goal, in addition to crafting a fun, early fall community get-together, is to exceed the $10,000 raised last year last year to benefit the Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation (AWOCCF).
“This foundation helps people in all 50 states. We do whatever is needed, from helping families with gas expenses to get to and from the hospital, heating expenses, home expenses, medical bill expenses, and of course, a portion of our funding goes to cancer research in effort to help find a cure, as well as better treatments for pediatric patients,” said Alexander.
Alexander, who is now a AWOCCF board member, first got involved with the foundation after her father passed from a stage four brain tumor.
“He loved children so much, he would have loved to have 25 grandchildren if we could have given them to him,” said Alexander. “After he passed, I was talking to a friend about one of her friends whose daughter had cancer and was going through the same kind of treatments my dad had gone through. I saw what they did to him and his body and I could only imagine how that would affect a young child’s body, so that really gave me the push to get involved with Arms Wide Open.
“It was a way to help children and carry on my father’s legacy and fight,” she continued. “He would have wanted me to do this for kids.”
Alexander has an overall goal of raising $37.5 million for the foundation and she is going full steam ahead. This is the fourth year she has organized this fundraiser and she said it keeps growing and raising more money every year.
“I am so grateful for the community and how it comes out to support this event,” said Alexander. “It’s a great fundraiser for a great cause.”
This year, parking opens at 4:30 p.m. and the party kicks off at 5 p.m. It will include live music from the band Remember September, which recently opened for the Dave Matthews Band. There will also be food trucks including the Lunch Box 23, The Rolling Tomato.com, Backyard Smokers LLC, The Drunken Baker, and Main Street Sweet Shoppe. At 7:30 p.m. the film The Greatest Showman about P.T. Barnum will be shown. Throughout the evening, there will also be a variety of vendors on site as well as free henna tattoos, free face painting, free glow sticks, plus a silent tea cup auction with prizes donated by local businesses.
Alexander encourages everyone to bring their lawn chairs and blankets and get ready to have a great evening with family and friends.
Entrance donation is $20 per carload. All proceeds go to AWOCCF. For more information, contact Alexander at kristen@awoccf.org.