News: Long Island Charity Walk
(Long Island, N.Y.) A three-mile walk will be held in the town of Sayville this Saturday to benefit children suffering from various illnesses. The event, called Kristen’s Walk To The Water, honors the eighteen-year-old Kristen Leigh Kessler who suffered from leukemia. Though Kessler succumbed to her battle with leukemia in March of 1993, her memory lives on through this annual event.
Kristen’s Walk To The Water is run alongside The Candle In The Darkness Foundation, Inc. The ninth annual walk will be held tomorrow, headed for the water and back, to represent Kessler’s love for marine life, dolphins, and the ocean. It will be held at nine-thirty in the morning at the Sayville Common Ground between Gillette and Candee Avenue.
The mission of the organization is to bring a smile to the faces of children who are ill, in addition to donating resources for the continued research in finding a cure for leukemia. An organization known as Splashes For Hope provides volunteers who will paint a mural in the room of a sick child. The mural is designed by the request of the child in a theme of his/her choosing, and often helps brighten the child’s life during a time of painful procedures.
Last year’s recipients of the service were a twelve-year-old boy from Deer Park and a five-year-old girl from Northport. Kessler’s organization helps sponsor the two murals for children with life-threatening illnesses. Kristen’s Walk To The Water has been held every year since May of 2003, and registration for this year’s walk begins at eight-thirty tomorrow morning.
The Candle In The Darkness Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that receives all the donations from Kristen’s Walk To The Water. Though the first year of the event was considered the most monetarily successful, the following years came close, and attracted an increasing amount of business sponsors. Attendance also increased in the years since the original walk.
The National Bone Marrow Registry has recently been involved with Kristen’s Walk To The Water. A play-set was installed in the yard of a young boy with the proceeds from the walk’s opening year. The following year lead to the purchasing of laptops for five children, some of whom were unable to leave their living environments. Proceeds from that year also helped to pay a college student’s tuition.
In addition, Kristen’s Walk To The Water has also helped bring a child with leukemia to Disney World and a twenty-one-year-old to the Dominican Republic to see her beloved family members. Kristen’s Walk To The Water communicates with counselors and social workers from Long Island hospitals in order to get in touch with young adults and children in need.
Other children, like a three-year-old critically injured from a three-story fall, have benefited from Kristen’s Walk To The Water. An interview with Kessler’s mother revealed that the biggest challenge of the event is the timing, which often conflicts with the busy season of graduations, weddings, and proms. Let’s hope that more faces and good weather are present for this year’s walk.
