Blog
Why Have We Endured the Elements these Past 16 Years?
Today we wanted to hear from our Board of Trustees Chairwoman, Tracy Brown, about the Histio Hike Shenandoah, one of the longest running volunteer-led events we have (16 years strong!). Tracy hosts the event on behalf of her son, and now all the Histio warriors she’s gotten to know over the years.
Tracy goes through the ups and downs of their own journey, to explain why we journey with them into the Appalachian Mountains each year.
In May 2006, when our son Ian was just 11 months old, we noticed a swollen lymph node in his groin that we thought was a hernia. He was finally diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) five months later. He then endured nearly five years of chemotherapy and steroid treatments while battling this disease. We suffered the heartache of not just that original diagnosis but also three recurrences. However, through it all we had an amazing support group of family, friends, fellow Histio families, and the Histiocytosis Association.
After Ian’s diagnosis we hosted or attended several fundraising events for the Association and in 2010 decided we wanted to provide families with a chance to experience the camaraderie that comes from working toward a common cause with those who understand. We chose a hike because we felt the challenge of hiking the mountains of Shenandoah National Park reflected the challenges we were facing with histiocytosis. The peaks and valleys of the histio journey mirrored the vistas and canyons of the park. Our goal was to provide the histio community with a place to meet and share their experiences in person, while also raising much needed funds and raising awareness. Every year since 2010, on the last weekend in April we have continued that tradition, with all donations benefiting the Histiocytosis Association.
We recently wrapped up our 16th hike weekend — another inspiring, humbling, wonderful weekend in nature with our Histio family. We want to extend our thanks to the patients and families who joined us in Shenandoah to share their stories and raise funds for the Association. In this, our 16th year we raised $43,331! That brings our 16 year total to $975,513. What an amazing impact these funds have had in helping fund research, supporting family programs, and raising awareness.
To our dear histio friends who returned again this year, it was wonderful to see you. To our new warriors and their loved ones, welcome to the hike family, we hope to see you again next year! We always leave hike weekend both energized and exhausted. It’s an awesome combo that this amazing Histio Hike family certainly understands.
Tracy has been on our Board of Trustees since 2014, and has been the chair of the board since 2021.
We want to thank her again for all her years working for the histio community, because she knows how tough that trail can be. Since that fight, she has been making enduring the elements worthwhile these past 16 years. We look forward to next year’s hike, and all the Brown family does in the fight against histio in the meantime.
I just want to briefly talk about all the good the Histio Hike does for our community. On top of being a great source of community and peer support programs with an average of 40-60k raised each year, the Hike also has supported our largest Histio Student Scholarship since the second year of the program in 2020. Every year, 10% of the Hike’s proceeds go to fund that scholarship.
Keep a look out in the next week or two for the announcement of the 7th Annual Histio Student Scholarship recipients!
