Cancer is one of the most complicated diseases to come to terms with. An oncologist once said to PussFoot staff “we as a species would not of advanced as far as we have without a mutation. Unfortunately, that ends terribly 99.99% of the time.” Can you imagine yourself as a parent and learning your child has cancer? For some of us, this is not just a thought but a reality. The poor children are put through a regimen of chemo and radiation before they even understand the world. This is one of humanities greatest human tragedies.
Jump for Jaclyn is how the skydiving community has chosen to confront this tragedy. However, there is a story of heroism within this event that we feel we need to discuss.
Every single one of us has had the idea or notion to raise money for some charity or event. However it is only a select few of us that convey our ideas into a full blow nationally recognized event. James Dickson of Heart up Nation is just one of these people. Through countless hours of work and endless conversations, James has arrived. Jump For Jaclyn is an annual event that brings skydivers from all over the world to a small town in Gardiner NY. The premise is to jump 25 times in one day to raise awareness and money for a charity called Friends of Jaclyn, this charity helps to link children suffering from Brain Cancer with a sports team. In turn, bring joy and that oh so needed feeling of normality back to the afflicted child.
This past Sunday PussFoot was proud to take part in the 2nd annual Jump for Jaclyn Boogie. Melanie Curtis & Nikki Blakeslee where the featured Skydivers, both completing 25 skydives each. However, this charity boogie was not just for the Pros a total of 45 fun jumpers and 80 volunteers showed up to help raise money and party with some of the children of the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.
Although the PussFoot team only completed 9 jumps we still felt as if we were part of something much bigger than a good time – we were helping confront the travesty of childhood cancer. Seeing the faces of the children of the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation light up with hope gave us more of a rush than the actual freefall. If you are interested in attending or even making 25 jumps next year to help these amazing children please feel free to email us and we will help make it happen. The event is always looking for sponsors and volunteers.
If you are interested in joining the fight against pediatric cancer and supporting this great event you can visit their GoFundMe page
Or Email Heart up Nation @ Jump4jacly@gmail.com
Check out some of the rad pics we were able to capture on our phone from the event: