Celebration on the Hill 2006
Most of you don't know this, but my mom is a cancer survivor. Actually, she should be called a Cancer Fighter, as she fights this disease every day of her life. She has a very rare ovarian cancer that has located itself in her lungs. It is not curable, no surgery can remove it. It is a granulosis cell cancer that is held at bay by on and off chemotherapy. She has been through chemo 3 times, each time lasting between 6-12 months at a clip. Each time she goes on chemo, the duration seems longer, and the time between chemos seems shorter. Right now, she is in remission, and hopefully it will be a long while until she has to go back on again.
What some of you also might not know is that I am a volunteer and advocate for the American Cancer Society. I have run the Relay for Life in my town for 3 years, and have been to the state capital to lobby legislators to support legislation that helps those suffering with this disease and for programs to help people stop smoking, get ealy detection cancer screenings, etc.
In 2006, the American Cancer Society and the Cancer Action Network sponsored an event called Celebration on the Hill in Washington DC. The purpose of the event was to meet with the US Senators and Representatives and get them to sign a Promise to support cancer legislation and prevention programs. My mother and I attended the event, it was a once in a lifetime event. It is hard to describe the impact it had on me and the thousands of others who attended.
Being that ACS and photography are my passions, I took along my camera and photographed the event from start to finish. I took my photos and combined them with music in a slide show like presentation to try to memorialize the event for those of us who attended, and give a small flavor of the event to those who did not attend. This is what I want to do in my next career, once I am done with teaching. ...Photojournalism.... telling a person's or event's story through pictures and music.
On that note, I have finally figured out how to upload my creation to Megaupload. It is about 30 minutes long, but it is something that I am very proud of for my first attempt back in 2006. If fighting cancer is important to you, feel free to download and watch. If you are curious as to what it was like, download and watch too.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PX64A1OE
Maybe someday there won't need to be events like this to bring the talk about cancer prevention and programs to the foreground.
It was an amazing experience!
What some of you also might not know is that I am a volunteer and advocate for the American Cancer Society. I have run the Relay for Life in my town for 3 years, and have been to the state capital to lobby legislators to support legislation that helps those suffering with this disease and for programs to help people stop smoking, get ealy detection cancer screenings, etc.
In 2006, the American Cancer Society and the Cancer Action Network sponsored an event called Celebration on the Hill in Washington DC. The purpose of the event was to meet with the US Senators and Representatives and get them to sign a Promise to support cancer legislation and prevention programs. My mother and I attended the event, it was a once in a lifetime event. It is hard to describe the impact it had on me and the thousands of others who attended.
Being that ACS and photography are my passions, I took along my camera and photographed the event from start to finish. I took my photos and combined them with music in a slide show like presentation to try to memorialize the event for those of us who attended, and give a small flavor of the event to those who did not attend. This is what I want to do in my next career, once I am done with teaching. ...Photojournalism.... telling a person's or event's story through pictures and music.
On that note, I have finally figured out how to upload my creation to Megaupload. It is about 30 minutes long, but it is something that I am very proud of for my first attempt back in 2006. If fighting cancer is important to you, feel free to download and watch. If you are curious as to what it was like, download and watch too.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PX64A1OE
Maybe someday there won't need to be events like this to bring the talk about cancer prevention and programs to the foreground.
It was an amazing experience!