OCALA, FL (352today.com)—For the fifth year running, the Stop Children’s Cancer’s Bear-A-Thon fundraiser surpassed all expectations and brought in $100,000 after just one day of accepting donations.
The fundraiser that has been going strong for 26 years and counting continues to grow, with calls pouring into the Stop Children’s Cancer Headquarters in Gainesville starting bright early on Wednesday morning. Some rang in when the clock hit 6 a.m., and the center began taking donations.
The center received donations from Marion County and beyond, with some donating as many as 20 teddy bears and/or chemo ducks at once, totaling $800.
The volunteers handling over-the-phone donations were hard at work, fielding the flurry of phone calls.
Most of the group consisted of first-time volunteers, including high school friends Antonella Pena-Rey and Leonor Contreras.
“Leonor told me she was volunteering here… she explained everything to me, and I entered because it’s a good cause for the children,” says Pena-Rey.
Contreras says her school is involved in activities that help spread awareness for children’s cancer.
“These kids go through a reality that’s different than mine, and I wanted to learn more about what they go through and be more empathetic with my environment,” she says.
Vincent Li, a pre-med student at the University of Florida, has volunteered at Stop Children’s Cancer for the last two years. This was his first time answering phone calls for the Bear-A-Thon.
Li participated in nonprofit organizations in his hometown of Orlando and wanted to find something similar when he moved to Gainesville.
“I went around the local area to look for volunteering opportunities and found Stop Children’s Cancer,” said Li. “I think it’s cool that they give an outlet for people to donate towards cancer.”
Li thinks the Bear-A-Thon is more than just an average, run-of-the-mill fundraiser.
“It’s more personalized…you’re donating a teddy bear to a child, giving them something to support them,” he says.
On the other hand, Isabel Alvarez is a seasoned veteran at Stop Children’s Cancer, where she has been volunteering for four years.
Alvarez joined a volunteering sorority at Santa Fe College in 2020 when she found a volunteering position at what volunteers call the “Stop Office.”
“I can’t imagine being a kid and having cancer and not understanding what I’m going through,” says Alvarez. “That’s why I enjoy volunteering at the Bear-A-Thon so much because it directly funds the well-being of these kids.”
Alvarez believes donations of teddy bears and chemo ducks provide an aura of comfort for children battling cancer.
“I feel like the children going through this horrible disease deserve that little comfort… the chemotherapy adults go through hurts, so imagine what it does to a kid,” she says.
Working in this industry and promoting donations for this cause requires a great passion for caring for children. Christy Gibbons, the executive director for Stop Children’s Cancer, has dedicated her entire career to providing for children in some way, shape, or form.
“Our primary focus and cause for Stop Children’s Cancer is finding cures for childhood cancer,” says Gibbons. “There are a lot of organizations that help support families and children with going through treatments, but we want to stop kids needing treatment.”
Gibbons believes funding cancer research is far from over, but fundraisers like the Bear-A-Thon continue moving the needle closer to that goal.
“Most of the money that comes out of the federal funding goes for adult cancer… only 4% of funding goes towards childhood cancer research,” she says. “Funding for childhood cancer research comes through local communities and charities raising money and promoting events that bring awareness to the cause… without our community supporting our efforts, funding for research just won’t happen.”
The average price for expenses such as clinical trials for children with cancer is about $4,000, according to Gibbons.
“It’s about that much just for enrollment into a treatment for cancer, and then relapse for kids who go through treatment is much higher than adults because they have so much longer to live… adults don’t have 30 years ahead of them like kids do,” says Gibbons.
Raising over $100,000 in Bear-A-Thon donations for the fifth straight year is a big step toward the organization’s goal of raising money for research. Gibbons says 99.9% of the funding goes to UF Health Shands’s oncology department for children’s cancer.
Stop Children’s Cancer is in a five-year, $1 million commitment with UF Health, aiming to provide $200,000 annually. So far, the organization has fulfilled two of the five years and looks to use this year’s Bear-A-Thon money towards the commitment.
“Thank you to K-Country, Wind-FM, and 352today for giving up an entire day to market Bear-A-Thon…it’s an endeavor by a lot of people to come together to make this day what it ends up being every year, and it’s amazing,” says Gibbons. “It’s really heartwarming to see a community come out in droves and donate one bear, two bears, five bears, 50 bears so that these kids have something to hold on to.”
Gibbons does not want people to feed into the misconception that the Bear-A-Thon is over when, in contrast, it has merely just begun. The fundraiser is open year-round and is always available online on Stop Children’s Cancer’s website.
Those who donate a bear or a chemo duck before April 25th are entered into a car drawing for a 2025 Honda Civic. The winner will be unveiled at a fantasy event on April 26th.