|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
COMMENT on this story in Town Square, under Around Town: http://www.almanacnews.com/square/index.php?i=9
Once again Jim and Clara McGovern will joins hundreds of others in “Walking for Ben” Saturday, Oct. 14, at Burgess Park in Menlo Park in memory of their grandson, Ben McGovern, who died in 1999, three months before his third birthday, of a rare form of leukemia.
The walk, which will raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, is held in conjunction with the society’s national “Light the Night” event, when teams of friends and co-workers gather across America, holding illuminated balloons — white for survivors and red for supporters.
“We’re expecting 1,000 people this year” at the Menlo Park event, said Mr. McGovern.
The event starts at 5 p.m. at Burgess Park. No reservations are required. After participants make a donation and receive a “Walking with Ben” T-shirt, there will be a barbecue with food donated by Safeway and Mollie Stone.
The 1.5- mile walk will start at 7 p.m. and continue, with red and white balloons bobbing in the dusk, down Santa Cruz Avenue to Ravenswood and back, taking about 35 to 40 minutes. At the conclusion of the walk, the winner of a drawing for a five-day fishing trip to Alaska will be announced.
This is the third “Walking for Ben” event, which the McGoverns started in 2004, using their own money to set up the activities. So far, the walks have raised more than $780,000, they said. Their goal for this year is $1 million. All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which funds research grants across the country in an effort to find cures for blood cancers.
Jim McGovern is chairman of the event. The honorary chairmen are Duncan Matteson, Bill Walsh and Ronnie Lott.
For more information, call 595-9255 or go to http://www.walkingforben.org/
