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Celebrating an end of treatment
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!
The Future of Cancer Care at Children’s National Webinar
We invite you to listen to the below webinar featuring Alex’s Army Research Advisor Dr. Jeffrey Dome and Dr. Catherine Bollard as they discuss research advances at Children’s National with specific mention of the REST Immunotherapy trial Alex’s Army has helped fund the last several years.
The Future of Cancer Care at Children’s National Webinar from Children’s Hospital Foundation on Vimeo.
Alex’s Army announces Green & Gold Athletic Spirit Scholarship
Today, September 30th 2020, Alex’s Army is proud to announce the start of our Green & Gold Athletic Spirit Scholarship in loving memory of two incredible athletes, George Mason University All-American center fielder Nakoma Sours (#3) and our own Alex Green (#41 / #52). Nakoma and Alex continue to inspire our community and this scholarship will honor their shared love for athletics and competition.
While today marks the end of the nationally recognized Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Alex’s Army is honored and incredibly proud to announce the start of this new endeavor to make a difference in the lives of families and youth athletes impacted by a childhood cancer diagnosis.
Through our Alex’s battle with cancer, we were always amazed at how he persevered with incredible determination, strength, and courage. From an early age Alex was motivated by competition and was a natural athlete in every sport he tried. Whether it was soccer, flag football, basketball, or t-ball (and he tried them all), he never ceased to amaze those around him at how natural of an athlete he was. After his paralysis at the age of 7, one of the first things he did when he arrived at the rehabilitation hospital was get in a sled to test out sled hockey. In rehab, he was introduced to adult rugby, lacrosse, sled hockey and wheelchair basketball – pretty much anything they could offer he wanted to do it but he had an undeniable passion for sled hockey and wheelchair basketball. He competed in National Tournaments and traveled with his teams to New York, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and several other neighboring states for competition. Often, sports were his motivation through treatment. Whether it was scheduling chemotherapy treatments early so he could make basketball in the afternoon, or setting his alarm to do 20 pushups every day to keep in shape so he could compete – Alex had an incredible athletic spirit, a love for sports and his teammates which was evident to everyone who met him.
Nakoma Dawn Sours, an American Indian from the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, also lived her life with a passion for competition and an unbreakable will to push towards excellence — always striving to be the best on and off the field. As a star player on the George Mason University women’s softball team, she inspired others to be better and pushed her teammates to excel. Nakoma achieved many accolades as a GMU Patriot – to this day she holds the single season record in runs scored and walks, as well as placing 2nd in on-base percentage and 3rd in slugging percentage. Despite playing only two seasons at GMU, Nakoma is 4th in school history in career stolen bases. Nakoma was ranked amongst the Nation’s Top 5 all-time in stolen bases and had National honors in on-base percentage.
We are announcing the launch of the annual Green & Gold Athletic Spirit Scholarship today in loving memory of Nakoma on the 25th anniversary of her passing in a tragic car accident. Alex’s Army will continue awarding this scholarship each year in remembrance of our Alex whose passion for sports and incredible determination inspired all those who knew him. The scholarship will recognize athletes whose lives are forever changed by a childhood cancer diagnosis but who inspire those around them every step of the way through their love for sport, their determination, strength, courage, and athletic spirit.
-More details will follow regarding scholarship application specifics
The town of Haymarket has gone GOLD!
On September 1st, Alex’s Army was able to hang gold ribbons through our town of Haymarket in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!
This event 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.
Special thank you to the Haymarket Town Hall for allowing us to paint the town gold for the 3rd year in a row, to Photography By Trisha for capturing the event, to The Cake Runner for the delicious limoncello macaroons for our volunteers (stay tuned for a sweet deal in how you can snag some for childhood cancer awareness month and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Alex’s Army!), to all of our families and volunteers who came out to help us once again paint the town GOLD!
We Miss You Alex
Wed April 8th our Alex would be turning 16 years old. Its emotional thinking about all the things he would be doing now if he were still here. The biggest right of passage for many 16 year olds of course is driving…he would have absolutely hands down loved that! Tomorrow we will be celebrating our sweet strong boy as a family, we will be sending out some gifts to a few of our PWC families, but we thought of a few ideas that you could also do to help celebrate Alex’s 16th birthday with us!
*Donate 1 item from our Amazon wish list (link below). As some of you may already know, we haven’t been able to host our annual Kids Helping Kids Donation drive this year with all the schools and group closings. We usually hold this drive in March but were moving it to April as it is Alex’s bday month. We are super low on our toy stock and rely each year on the local groups who participate in our annual KHK donation drive to replenish for the upcoming year. **We DO NOT want anyone to go out shopping for items and have made it super simple to help. Click on the link below and choose 1 item to donate – our shipping address is already in there so your item chosen will come right to us. Link to our wishlist: https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/IR2QA8EQXZDA…
*Donate $16 on our website – any funds donated will be used for us to purchase toys/gifts to help restock our supply for the care packages we send to families and that are used during our hospital visits. Link to donate
*Get down and do 16 or 20 pushups in honor of our guy sweet strong guy! Tag us @alexsarmyccf or send us your pics/videos! #Twenty4Alex
We know these are difficult days…we love you all and are so thankful for Alex’s Army! Know that while sometimes life can be more than difficult, there is always hope and even in some of the darkest days you can always find God’s light shining through.
Alex we miss you more than words and hope that you’ll be smiling down on us tomorrow from Heaven. Happy 16th Birthday sweet boy!
Be Love Give Hope
Hearts Of Gold Gala 2019
We are so incredibly excited to share with you all that our first ever Hearts of Gold Gala raised a whopping $68,737.46 (and counting)!!!! We well exceeded our $50k goal and all in all we are over the moon with your generosity, love, & your support of our foundation and this first ever Gala event!!!
To say the evening was special is an incredible understatement. We feel so blessed by every moment and by each of you who joined us. Everything from our Honorary Family Patrick, Linda, and Matthew McDonnell sharing their connection with the Green family, what the REST trial has meant to their family, and presenting a check from their foundation Matthews Hope 4 Miracles to Dr. Dome to help contribute to the financial support for this trial to continue for other kids, to the live auction bidding with professional auctioneer HL Wenger and finishing off the evening with your incredibly generous paddle raise donations!
We had a wonderful time and hope each of you who joined us did as well!!
A huge Congratulations to each of our Hearts of Gold Volunteer Award Recipients who took home awards Saturday evening. We thank you for your service, support, and love that you have each poured into making Alex’s Army what it is: Franz Ferstl, Kristi Catlett, Stacia Rowles, Hollie Farrish Piraino, and Raishad Peoples.
Thank you to Dr. Jeffrey Dome, MD PhD, for attending our event and for sharing with our attendees remarks about the REST Immunotherapy Trial at Childrens National that Alex’s Army has helped fund the last 2 years (not including our 2019 grant).
Thank you again to our event sponsors – Heart of Love Sponsors: Advantage Air Conditioning of Virginia, The Dunham Family, Janet Hroncich & Joanne Arehart, Simply Divine Decorating & Staging, Thrivent Financial Dulles Group – David Stach & Martin Cox; to our Heart of Compassion Sponsors: FH Furr, Len & Elizabeth Forkas, and Smoots Custom Concrete; and to our Family Sponsors: A-Advantage Heating & Air, Amy Orne, Brett & Tawni Schwemer, FH Furr, Gary & Denise Rogerson, Gossom and Costello Paving, Padgett Business Products, Park Valley Church, and Trish Weinsten.
Thank you to our amazing planning committee, all of our volunteers, and our speakers for the evening! Thank you to Photography by Trisha for capturing moments from this event, to Kris Heeter for his construction of our gigantic Gold Heart for center stage and to Devin Hutcheson for his expertise on the painting and finishing touches for this masterpiece!
It truly does take an army to fight childhood cancer and we feel as though we have the best army around!
Hearts of Gold Gala
Saturday November 16th 2019
Evergreen Country Club Ballroom
15900 Berkeley Drive, Haymarket, VA
Save the Date friends for our first ever Gala event celebrating 5 years of LOVE! We are so excited to celebrate as we look back on the first 5 years of Alex’s Army and fund raise the night away to help launch us into these next 5 years! Your ticket and/or sponsorship will include cocktails, passed hors d’oeuvres, a plated dinner, late night snacks & dessert, silent and live auction items, a program you won’t want to miss, music, dancing, & more! Our Hearts of Gold Gala will only come around once every 5 years and we do not want you to miss out!
Registration has closed: Gala Site