Local students making a difference

By Guest Contributor Jon Paul Martin

Winchester, KY — Students and staff at Baker Intermediate raised more than $9,000 in just 10 days dur­ing their annu­al DanceBlue Mini Marathon to sup­port the fight against pedi­atric cancer.

The fundrais­ing effort con­clud­ed with an all-day marathon event where stu­dents and fac­ul­ty par­tic­i­pat­ed in orga­nized dances led by the school’s DanceBlue team. The event com­bined cel­e­bra­tion and pur­pose, as par­tic­i­pants danced in hon­or of chil­dren and fam­i­lies impact­ed by cancer.

Students were divid­ed into “Power Word” teams — Achieve, Dream, Succeed, and Believe — reflect­ing the school’s mot­to. Each team hon­ored a local child­hood can­cer sur­vivor, giv­ing the day a deeply per­son­al con­nec­tion to the Winchester community.

DanceBlue is a stu­dent-run phil­an­thropy that began at the University of Kentucky. The orga­ni­za­tion rais­es funds and aware­ness for pedi­atric can­cer and sup­ports the DanceBlue Hematology/Oncology Clinic at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. The move­ment was inspired by the final wish of pedi­atric can­cer patient Jarrett Mynear and cen­ters around a 24-hour, no-sit­ting, no-sleep­ing dance marathon held annu­al­ly at UK. Schools across Kentucky par­tic­i­pate in Mini Marathons to con­tin­ue that mission.

Through their efforts, Baker stu­dents demon­strat­ed that com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment and com­pas­sion can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence in the lives of chil­dren fac­ing cancer.