Foundation promotes awareness about childhood cancer

By TRAVIS M. WHITEHEAD

Staff Writer

HARLINGEN — Children are more precious than gold.

That’s the message Judi Peters wishes to extend to everyone during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, which is September.

Throughout the month, the Teamwalkerpete Foundation will work with the Harlingen school district to bring awareness to childhood cancer. Members of the organization have already begun the work, selling gold shirts with the words “Stop Childhood Cancer.”

“We had a huge response from the staff and students on some of the campuses that bought shirts,” said Judi, founder of the Teamwalkerpete Foundation.

The organization is named after her son Nick, who died of leukemia in October 2016. He’d been a student at Harlingen High School. Students and staff in the district have been proactive in bringing awareness to childhood cancer. They made their support quite clear with the purchase of the T-shirts.

Peters said different campuses will wear the shirts on different days.

“Each campus has Wednesdays, or Tuesdays,” she said. “I know Harlingen High School is doing the Teamwalkerpete Tuesdays. They’re all going to be wearing their gold shirts.”

Students and faculty will also wear gold ribbons throughout September.

“The other thing is our foundation gave out 275 gold T-shirts that we put our design on,” Peters said. “We gave out half to Harlingen South and half to Harlingen High School. During the games in September and also during Bird Bowl in November, they’re going to throw the shirts into the stands.”

Peters appreciated the school board designating September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month at a recent meeting.

“We had a kindergarten student from Wilson Elementary who is a fighter,” she said. “We also had a kindergarten student from Means and one from Sam Houston who are both survivors.”

During halftime at Bird Bowl on Nov. 2, they’ll hand out gold ribbons and gold bracelets to recognize students in the district who are battling cancer or survived cancer.