Pedals for Hope, 2010

A room fills with people of all ages who are going to hear about an illness that affects society; an illness that needs to be fought. At 1:15 p.m. there's going to be a sacrifice made to aid in this battle. Twenty-six children march in front of the eagerly waiting crowd and take their seats at the front of the room while a young man and a young lady—armed with scissors—wait for them. Working quickly, the two adults cut ten inches of hair from each girl's head, then hold the ponytails up high to show the entire room. With each tail that's held up the room explodes with shrieking, chanting, cheering and clapping. It's almost like a pagan ritual.

This is all taking place at Entheos Academy for their annual Pedals for Hope cancer fundraiser. Twenty-three girls have just donated their hair to Locks of Love, and three boys had their heads shaved to show their support for cancer patients and cancer research. Among the twenty-three were my three littlest: Kaylie, Rachel and Jessica.

It was a terrific assembly, as usual. They began by asking all the students who had a family member or close friend who'd been affected by cancer to stand up. I was amazed as fully 85 to 90 percent of the student body stood up. "This," said Miss Amy Kovacs, "is why we do this fundraiser every year. Cancer affects so many people around us." This demonstration was followed by a little girl telling of her experience with her baby brother fighting cancer. "My brother is a survivor." she said.

The student body raised $1,058.35 in their penny wars, a competition between the students to see which grade can bring in the most change. This year the fourth grade won the penny wars. All in all the Entheos student body raised $5,380.21 to donate to the Huntsman Center for cancer research. One of the teachers, Mr. Horscroft, knows Lance Armstrong; and he asked him if he could do something support our school's cancer fundraiser. Mr. Armstrong donated one of his own yellow, "LIVESTRONG" vests to the school; the student who personally raises the most money each year will get to wear Lance Armstrong's vest during the Pedals for Hope bike ride ("riding the miles for a cure"). This honor will go to Jack Richins who raised $500 by going door-to-door, getting donations from neighbors, family and friends.

Tomorrow morning many of the students, teachers, and even some parents, will ride the Jordan River trail; some going ten miles, some twenty, thirty, forty, and some riding their bikes up to fifty miles, all in bright yellow T-shirts proclaiming their cause.

The climax of today's assembly was the cutting of the hair for Locks of Love; the students just go nuts for this. Jessica said, "I was kind of nervous while I was waiting. And then I plugged my ears [when the kids were cheering] because it was so noisy."

A camera-man from KSL TV was there this afternoon, as well as a reporter from the Deseret News, to capture the Entheos kids' excitement in their cause. (See it on KSL News at 5 and 10 p.m., and tomorrow's Deseret News—and Deseret News online, too.)

Pedals for Hope is a terrific climax to the Entheos school year.

Entheos (noun Greek) means:

1. to be inspired

2. to have enthusiasm within

3. intense or eager interest; zeal

4. something arousing such interest or zeal

These great kids have certainly shown all of these qualities!

before school

after school