It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month & Alex’s Army is going GOLD!!!

As our good friends with Team Mathias do in the Town of Leesburg VA year after year, we have once again for the 4th year in a row decorated our Town of Haymarket with Gold bows up and down Washington street. We were honored to have our Town of Haymarket Mayor Ken Luersen and Town Councilman Joe Pasanello join us!

This year thanks to the support of our friends at Grizzly Sports Complex, while we weren’t able to hold our Annual Alex’s Army Bowl Games (stay tuned til next year!) we were able to turn the sports complex Gold as well!

This tradition has become one of our favorites in that it truly is such a special thing to be a part of. We hang the ribbons each year not only to raise awareness, but also as a symbol of our love for all of the families whose lives are forever impacted by a childhood cancer diagnosis. We hang these gold ribbons to stand united with families walking this difficult path so they know they are not alone in their fight and that ours is a community that cares.

Be sure to check back on our website for more pictures of tonight’s ribbon hanging!

Special thank you to the Haymarket Town Hall for allowing us to do this each year and by supporting us even more by joining us in our efforts! Thank you to Photography By Trisha for capturing the Haymarket team and to Hollie Farrish Piraino for capturing the Grizzly team.

A super big THANK YOU to our sweet friend Nicole at Salsa Sweets for donating the delicious gold ribbon cookies for our volunteers and some of our families we were delivering gifts to this week. And thank you as always to all of our families and volunteers who came out to help us once again paint the town GOLD!

There are lots of things going on in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. More kids than you would want to believe in your community and all over our country are impacted by childhood cancers. Get involved and join us in raising awareness this month and all year long!

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Last weekend, Alex’s Army had the honor of helping to plan an End of Treatment Celebration (social distance style) for a special young man and his family. With the help of MANY amazing people in the community, Quinn & his family were showered with an unforgettable day!

Thanks to the help of our friends at Team Mathias and the wonderful people over at Ashburn Volunteer Fire Rescue Department – the awesome siren and horn welcomed Quinn and his family as they arrived and made their way around the parking lot which was filled with Team Quinn Gorman friends, family, childhood cancer non-profits like Team Mathias, Stillbrave, Ellie’s Hats, and several other childhood cancer families who all were there in support and to shower the Gorman family with LOVE!!!

Thanks to the wonderful people with the The 501st Legion, Quinn – who mom Nikki says is a Mandalorian fan – was welcomed also by none other than Chewbacca, the Imperial Guard, & Mandalorian! Not only that, but a few other awesome storm troopers stopped by Quinn’s home to pose in front of his End of Treatment sign his family had and left him a book to let Quinn know they were there!

Quinn got to meet his Principal, his Dean, and a few other staff in person for the first time since school has been virtual. The staff at Belmont Ridge Middle School were so wonderful in coordinating the location for the celebration on such short notice and helped with balloons, music, and the bullhorn (which came in handy being so spread out although we definitely needed practice in using one – should have had Tom take the reigns on that one!)

The day was made even more memorable by our friends, the self-proclaimed “Glory Hounds” who made a surprise appearance and decorated the clear blue skies over Quinn and his family! There were tears and applause throughout the entire group as a heart was made complete through the talents of local Leesburg area pilots Jim and Mark who not only made a heart, but a smiley face, and finished with a few low-flying passes over the group to help make Quinn’s day extra special! A special Alex’s Army shout-out to the Potomac Tracon and Leesburg Executive Airport Tower staff who worked quickly together to get Jim and Mark airborne once they heard the purpose behind the two flights departing for Quinn’s celebration. Mark shared that there were some delays due to heavy air traffic in the area but the moment he shared with the controllers what their flight mission was everyone came together quickly to help make it happen!

Finally, when the Gorman family arrived home there were a few more surprises in store like a moon bounce for Quinn & his sisters to enjoy with the help of our friends at AMUSEMENT OF BOUNCERS as well as a few small gifts from Alex’s Army to keep the celebration going!Days like these are so incredibly special. I don’t think there are many things more special than getting to witness a child and their family who you’ve watched go through some incredibly tough things, finally get to celebrate finishing treatment! The Gorman family is one of the sweetest families you could have the pleasure of meeting and Quinn’s kind smile despite being in the hospital always touched our hearts. Thank you Nikki and Gorman family for allowing us to help in this celebration of Quinn’s End of Treatment! Thank you to all of Team Quinn Gorman who showed up and showered this sweet boy with a welcome home and celebration that he will never forget.

Alex’s Army please keep Quinn and his family in your prayers for continued healing, good health, and to remain cancer-free forever!

Quinn and Gorman family – you are loved!

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In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, local friends might notice the special GOLD bows that have placed along the 80 light posts that line the street in the Town of Haymarket!

Thank you to our good friends at Team Mathias for inspiring us and in paving the way year after year through the gold bows placed in the Town of Leesburg. We are beyond honored to bring these gold ribbons to Haymarket!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to our Town of Haymarket for GOING GOLD to raise awareness this month for Childhood Cancers!

We LOVE our town and we especially LOVE the children and families whose lives are forever changed by hearing those words, “You’re child has cancer.” We hope and pray that these gold bows are a reminder to us all of the families fighting all around us, we hope these bows are a reminder to those families that they are incredibly loved and they are not alone in their fight. ??

In the U.S. approximately 46 children are diagnosed and 7 children pass away from childhood cancers every single day. Childhood Cancer continues to be the #1 cause of death by disease for the children in our country.

Awareness leads to funding which leads to research which will one day lead to cures!

Saturday, September 8th Alex’s Army, Gainesville Grizzlies, and American Pride Youth Football leagues came together once again for the annual Alex’s Army Bowl Games!

These scrimmages not only kick off the start to our areas fall youth football season, but they also kick off Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and this year was bigger and better than ever (despite the weather!).

Together we went GOLD at Grizzly Sports Complex! Players from both leagues wore gold ribbons on their helmets, the fields were decorated with gold ribbons and balloons, and we honored a few local families who came out to join us as honorary captains and performed the games coin toss for the teams.

We love this event for so many reasons. We love to see these sweet kids faces as they walk onto the field! To many of the kids these super cool football players look pretty tough (and they are pretty tough let me tell you!). It’s pretty awesome for them to flip the game coin and even greater is how awesome it is for us to be able to introduce these warriors and their families to the captains and referees, all who are truly impacted and blessed by their presence.

Our Alex loved football (he loved many sports) but these two leagues BOTH Grizzlies and American Pride hold a special place in our hearts! He has jerseys from both leagues and we will never forget the day he got to go in for a touchdown with his best bud Logan Taylor behind him pushing his wheelchair determinedly down the field to the end zone. When two competitive leagues can come together for a greater cause – thats a pretty powerful thing!

A huge Congratulations to Gary Rogerson (ticket #0675) who was the grand prize winner of 2 tickets to Super Bowl LIII raffle drawing! You can watch the drawing live here.

Special thank you to our good friends and Alex’s Army supporters Jeff & Dawn Dunn for their incredible generosity in donating these two tickets.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this raffle and who joined Alex’s Army in the fight against childhood cancers! Please continue to raise awareness where you can all throughout the month of September and beyond. Our kids deserve every bit of support and all the love we can give them!

If you missed out on purchasing raffle tickets but want to support our mission,you can make a 100% tax deductible donation here.

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