Hope

We visited Hope Children's Hospital this morning and met some amazing kids and doctors who are fighting cancer together. In the past few days, the staff had been preparing the kids for our visit. Some of them made us drawings, and one kid even set aside a granola bar when he heard about us. He told the nurse that he wanted to save it for "the bikers" because we would need the energy :)

Ryan (10) was one of the kids we met. His mom told us about his journey with cancer, and Ryan asked us lots of questions about our bikes and told us about how much he loved baseball:


Next stop was the Kellogg Cancer Center for a luncheon with the staff and some special families who have been touched by neuroblastoma. The Chiou family lost their son Tyler to in 2005, and the Zavaleta family whose son Ryan is (5) and has been in remission for the past three years - way to go Ryan!!

The Zavaleta kids had been busy all week collecting coins from their neighbors, and they ended up collecting over $135 in change - mostly pennies!! We celebrated by dawning fresh hot pink whale tattoos with the whole gang:



~ Austin