The 6th Annual SammyStrong 5k and Home Run Derby to Fight Pediatric Brain Cancer is August 1st, Executive Director Sarah Wemhoff-Strawn Tells the Origin Story on KIOS-FM

The following program was previously recorded. It's time for another episode of Live and Local from the studios at 33rd and Burt. I'm your local host, Mike Hogan. Thank you for joining me today. Well, it was October 19th, 2020. And she remembers the exact date because that's when her son came home from school with his second headache in 10 days. And it turns out following that, the family would be fighting pediatric brain cancer. Her name is Sarah Wemhoff Strawn, and she is the executive director of the Sammy Strong Foundation. Sarah, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for the opportunity, Mike. Thank you. I do want to talk about a fantastically fun fundraising event that you have coming up here for the Sammy Strong Foundation. But I want to go back to this story because as you and the family began to battle and navigate through this pediatric brain cancer journey, you discovered there were a lot of people who just came out to support you. Yes, from that day, like you said, October 19th, when our entire family just truly got thrown a pretty big curveball, we were just very, very grateful and very moved with the amount of support that we got from friends, family, community, sports, school, all the things. And with that support, we were able to... make some really, really hard decisions for Sam and make them quickly. And that was vital for what we needed to do in his next steps with his diagnosis. One of the interesting things I found about the Sammy Strong Foundation is that in addition to providing some financial support to families who are going through this very same thing. You also have hero kits for the child who's been diagnosed, and I get that part. Yes. But sibling bags to all the siblings, Sammy has siblings as well. And so it truly is a family affair when one child becomes sick, isn't it? It absolutely is, and it looks different for every single family member. And we are incredibly grateful and just so proud that we are able to add sibling bags into our strong together program. And it was something that we saw firsthand with Sammy's siblings, Landon and Lauren, and I continue to see. over and over again with other families that we work with both from the standpoint that these siblings are

truly the silent warriors of the family as well you know there's only 24 hours in a day and rightfully so so much of that time at diagnosis is given to the kiddo who is sick and those siblings more often than not kind of just get get kind of moved to move to the side so so they the family can work and move into what they need to do for the kiddo diagnosed. And seeing that, how that impacted our two older kids and seeing other parents, how that moved them and how that impacted them. And really, as a part of Sammy Strong, wanting to include that in this is something that the whole family. you know, is affected by and takes part in and how to make that family unit strong together and incorporating those sibling bags was just a really, really important notion and a really important movement for us. If you can talk about this fundraiser happening on August 1st at Warner Park, it's the Sammy Strong Foundation Home Run Derby and 5K. Yes, anybody who knows Sammy or has met him knows right away that his why has always been baseball and continues to be. And so our home run derby in 5K was our inaugural event. This is our six year holding it. It's our third year out at Warner Park. And it is... the focus of really being a community family-centric event. The one mile, the 5K is all ages, all abilities, the home run derby, anyone eight and older get to go down on the field and, you know, swing for the fences, different distances, of course, for different ages. But really just putting Sammy's love and Sammy's Y into other hope and other connections for families who are on this journey as well. And so the 5K Home Run Derby is something that is truly close to our heart and really as a way to bring that community. And we have an incredible community here in Nebraska and Omaha and really bringing the community together to support other kids who continue to be in this fight as well. Any information you would like on this August 1st event, go sammystrong.com. And find information and register if you so choose. Sarah Wemhoff-Strawn is the executive director of Sammy Strong Foundation. And she's been my guest today on Live and Local Sarah. Thank you so much for taking the time. And just wonderful work you're doing to help families get through the toughest time of their lives. No, thank you, Mike, so much for providing this opportunity to spread the Sammy Strong mission and about our event. And thank you for the community that continues to show up for these incredible warriors day in and day out. We couldn't do it without them.