‘A GREAT CAUSE’ SK8 TO ELIMIN8 CANCER FUNDRAISERS HITTING STRIDE by KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT Cancer didn’t necessarily change
Scott Hamilton. Being a survivor led to the man he
is today. “I always tell people you know
you’ve truly survived when you are stuck in bad traffic,” joked Hamilton, before getting serious, “because you’re back to sweating the small stuff. “Cancer was a wake-up call for me
twice. Once when my mother lost her battle, I became a survivor. Ten 20 years later when I survived cancer, it was another wake-up call. I wasn’t liv- ing the life that I truly was supposed to live and I decided to shake everything up again.” Following the death of his adop-
tive mother seven years before he won the 1984 Olympic gold medal in Sara- jevo, Hamilton began his humanitari- an efforts by raising funds in his moth- er’s honor. However, once he survived his
own cancer — he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997 and again, in 2004, when he was diagnosed with a benign noncancerous brain tumor that returned in 2010 — Hamilton became more of an activist. Instead of raising money on behalf of other organiza- tions, in 1998, he founded the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation with the intent to effect major changes. CARES is an acronym for Cancer
Scott Hamilton has devoted his life to his CARES
Foundation and turning cancer upside down!
Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship. Initially the foundation was a way of saying thank you to the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, that treated Hamilton, but over the past 18 years it’s become something bigger than that. Much bigger. “In many ways we’ve done a lot of
work and in many ways the world got really small all at once,” Hamilton said. “And we have so much to do now as a foundation.” On a daily basis, the 57-year-old and his staff ask themselves a series of
54 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016
questions. Who can we partner with? Who can we bring on board? Who can we help? How can they help us? “Here’s how small the world is,”
Hamilton explained. “Jim Valvano gave an iconic speech at the ESPYs with the theme ‘Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.’ Tey were one of our first alliance partners [Te V Foundation for Cancer Research]. Do you know who was on Jim Valvano’s basketball team? Terry Gannon, who is the voice of figure skating [on NBC]. How small of a world do we live in? Isn’t that crazy that Terry Gannon was on that basket- ball team? Tink about it. Te world just keeps getting smaller. “And when you think one in two men and one in three women are going to be facing cancer in their lifetime,” he continued. “Now how small is it? What do we do to create pathways? To create infrastructure?” Tose are the big-picture questions
asked by Hamilton’s Nashville-based foundation and specifically its Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer program, which has partnered with U.S. Figure Skating to help develop those pathways. Te collaborative goal is to engage
U.S. Figure Skating clubs, members and their greater communities. Tere are more than 700 clubs nationwide. Since the launch in August 2015, there have been 25 Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer benefits in 12 states, with 20 clubs and 30 rinks hosting. An average benefit features between 75 and 100 skaters and raises on average $5,000, with a total of $100,000 generated collectively in the last year. “To see our skating community come together for a cause that goes be- yond the ice is an incredible thing to witness, and lead,” Nadia Kogeler, Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer coordinator, said. In Troy, Michigan, more than 250 people attended a SK8 to Elimin8 Cancer event at the Troy Sports Center on June 18.
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