Written By:
Member Sarah
@vintageshutterbug
14 million, 21 million, 8 million, 13 million. What do these number have in common - aside from their sheer volume? According to the American Cancer Society, they represent the projected increase in cancer diagnoses and cancer fatalities from 2012 - 2020 worldwide. From 14 million to 21 million cancer cases, and from 8 million to 13 million cancer related deaths. Does this move you? Not yet? Okay - how about these statistics. The National Cancer Institute reports that approximately 15,270 children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 years were diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and approximately 1,790 died of the disease in the United States alone. Among children ages 0 to 14 years, it is estimated that 10,270 were diagnosed with cancer and 1,190 died of the disease in 2017. Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a Childhood Cancer advocacy and fundraising group estimates that each day, worldwide, 250 children lose their battle with cancer. 250 innocent babies are taken from this earth by this horrific disease. Cancer is not just a “white” problem, or a “black” problem. Cancer is a global epidemic.
In this day and age, you’re hard pressed to find anyone who’s life has been untouched by cancer in some way. It seems everywhere we go we find someone who knows someone who is battling, who survived, or lost their life to cancer. It can be argued that the Six Degrees of Separation theory puts us even closer to this disease than we may believe. Personally, my world has been riddled with cancer. Friends and family members alike, and they aren’t all happy endings. My mom is a 2 time cancer survivor. Both of my childhood best friend’s parents battled the disease, one losing their life to it. My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 80s - by the way WHO GETS CANCER AT 80?!?! My grandpa lost his battle with cancer 2 years ago on Valentines Day. A cousin and former Chicago police officer lost his valiant fight just a few months ago. Even my dog had cancer. So when I was given the opportunity to raise awareness close to home, I jumped at the opportunity.
On April 21, 2018 I teamed up with Bearded Villains Chicago and participated in the American Cancer Society’s Walk & Roll 5k. About 50 of us participated in the walk, and worked beforehand to fundraise for the cause. This was BVC’s third year participating in the walk, but my first on the team - I had every intention of joining last year but I was the MOH in my sister’s wedding the day of the event, sooooo that took priority.
Now, this may come as a shock to you, but I HATE asking people for money. It’s awful. I tend to operate under the mindset “if I can’t afford it or wouldn’t put money toward it, how can I ask someone else to put money toward it?” So the fundraising aspect of the event was a bit out of my comfort zone. But when I reminded myself that I HAVE donated to this cause, and it touches so many people, it was hard not to promote it.
I’ve been dabbling a bit in photography and photo editing for the past few years so I got to work creating edits and graphics to help generate some buzz on social media, and requested help from the faceless masses I call “friends.” No offense friends and followers, y’all are the best. Truly, salt of the earth. But how many of you can I even refer to by your first and last name rather than your IG name? 🤣 I was effectively asking strangers to help me support this cause I am so passionate about.
When it all started, I made what I thought was a really lofty personal goal of $100. It was easily the largest amount of money I had ever tried to raise (aside from cookie dough sales in high school to fund a trip to Disney World - but this is charity), so I was apprehensive, but hopeful. Armed with my abundance of graphics, and some creatively worded captions, I took to Instagram and began posting. In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, I also shared the posts to Facebook (shout out to Instagram for the convenient sharing capabilities), and shortly thereafter to Twitter (which I am still getting the hang of).
At first, donations trickled in as I expected: $20 here (shout out to my brothers girlfriend), some from some fellow Villainettes (love this sisterhood), and even a few $10 donations from some folks who really don’t have much of their own (Y’all are amazing for giving!). I was thrilled to see that fundraising total jump up and looked forward to the update emails after each donation. The American Cancer Society also has this nifty FUNdraising App to help you share and track not only your personal progress and donors but your team as well! With this data at my finger tips, I felt a little competitive fire start burning inside me. 🔥 Less than 24 hrs after my first post I was already halfway to that $100 goal. Just 6 days after my first post I SURPASSED my goal by $65! The outpouring of support from friends, family, and strangers was incredible - and I realized I couldn’t just stop at $100. So, I took a deep breath and asked the internet to help me hit $200. The jump from $165 to $200 wasn’t a lofty request, $35 isn’t a horribly high amount, but I felt like I was in Lala Land thinking I could hit it. But I got a $5 donation pretty quickly... and then - something amazing happened.
Not only did I surpass the $200 mark, but one person singlehandedly put my total raised at $370!!! One person made a $200 donation!!! I maneuvered as quickly as my fingers would go to the app to see who had made this donation. Breathlessly tapping the tabs waiting to see a familiar name atop the lost of donors. Much to my surprise the name attached to that massive $200 donation was completely foreign to me. Not only was the name unfamiliar, I was pretty sure I wasn’t connected to them on social media either. Desperate to find them and thank them for their generosity I dropped a message to my Villainette sisters asking if anyone knew someone by that name (I’m not mentioning it here to allow them some anonymity). I also began searching my social media pages for anyone with their name. I found one potential match, but we had only 4 followers in common - members of the Bearded Villain/Villainette community. But this person didn’t have any visible ties to either group.
Desperate for answers, I decided to send a semi-cryptic message to the stranger asking if they had donated to charity lately. They responded saying they had and I immediately thanked them. They assured me thanks were not necessary, but I told them how much it meant to me, and with that I thought our paths were set to move in opposite directions. A few moments later I received a notification from the app indicating another donation... ANOTHER $200 donation! My mysterious donor had done it again! I bounced back to our DM and exclaimed my surprise, awe, and gratitude. In return I got a simple 👍🏻 and a ❤️ and away they went.
The day of the Walk & Roll came and I was just $70 away from hitting $700 raised. I created another edit reminding everyone that this was their last chance to donate, and headed to the event.
Also making an appearance at the walk and roll were 7 other Villainettes, 8 of us in total. 3 from Chicago, 3 from Wisconsin, and 2 from Indiana including my dear sister Ashley who is a cancer survivor herself. As we prepared to walk, I got another notification from the FUNdraising app. My parents donated, my brother too, and there it was. ANOTHER $200 donation from my mysterious sponsor! That brought their total donated to $600 and my total over $900!!!!! In the end, I raised $940 for the American Cancer Society. While a little bummed that I didn’t reach the $1000 mark, I had completely CRUSHED my $100 goal with the support and generosity of my friends and family. Without them, none of that would have been possible. And this mysterious donor who gave $600 of their own money...amazing. I am still blown away by that - but even without their generosity, I still raised over $300 proving to myself that I shouldn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger next time.
Together, the Bearded Villains Chicago team raises over $6000 to help fund vital research to kick cancers butt. The team also walked in honor of a sweet little girl named Mia. Mia is the daughter of a a fellow Bearded Villain who at just 2 years old was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer. This little peanut is quite the fighter though. She is scheduled to celebrate her 3rd birthday in July and continues to smile each day despite undergoing over 20 major surgeries, chemo and radiation. It was an absolute honor to be a part of #teammia and we continue to send our prayers to the family. For more information and to donate to assist them with medical expenses you can visits the Bearded Villains West Texas page on IG (@beardedvillains_westtexas).
Overall, I was thrilled about the event. The love and support I received from my social media network was incredible. The camaraderie of our team, which included Bearded Villains, Villainettes, and Bearded Villain Queens - along with friends and family who support us - was something to behold. I am so proud to be a part of this family, so dedicated to doing good and leaving this world much better than it was found.
So, what’s next you ask? Well, on May 19 the Chicago Villainettes are scheduled to participate in the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition’s 21st Annual Run/Walk to Break the Silence on Ovarian Cancer. Our seeet sister and Villainette OG Member Melissa lost her mom to this terrible disease a few years ago. Since then, Melissa has experienced so many special life events without her mom by her side including her wedding day and the birth of her beautiful son. In honor of her mom and in support of Melissa we are hoping to assist their team in meeting their fundraising goal of $8,000. With just a few weeks to go, they have nearly hit the $5,000 mark already! To donate to the cause, you can click the link in Melissa’s IG profile @harley_quinn_doll
“Alone we can do so little, But together we can do so much!"
