What a Week of Fundraising Taught Me
I have to be honest with you, I was slightly uncomfortable and didn’t know what to expect when I started asking people to donate to my 24 Hours of Booty campaign.
I knew why I was doing it. I knew what it meant to my family. I knew that Levine Cancer Institute has been part of our story in deeply personal ways, and I knew that riding this summer in my city, for this community, in year 25 of this event, felt like the most meaningful thing I could do.
Asking people to show up for you, however, is a different kind of vulnerable.
Then you did faster than I imagined
In less than a week, I hit my goal. I am still sitting with the full weight of that.
It wasn’t just the donations, even though every single one of them moved me. It was how it happened. It was the people who gave and then shared their own stories. People who have lost someone. People who are in the middle of it right now. People who said, “this one’s personal for me too,” and showed up anyway. The people who told me they are cheering me on through this challenge are doing so for so many different reasons.
It was hearing from people I haven’t connected with in years, old friends, former colleagues, people I didn’t realize were still watching, who reached out to say they wanted to be part of this. There is something completely disarming about that kind of reconnection. About realizing that the threads between people don’t disappear, things just may get a little quieter, and something like this pulls them back.
I cried more than I expected. Cancer has a way of making things real very quickly. It strips away the noise, leaving only what matters. What I learned this past week is that what matters to the people in my life is each other: showing up, giving what they can, and saying, “I see you, and I’m with you.”
That is what you did for me. By extension, that is what you did for every patient and family that will be touched by the survivorship programs at Levine Cancer Institute. The things that make survival feel like living again.
So here is my promise to you…
Every mile I ride on that loop, through the heat, through the night, through the moments where my legs beg me to stop, I am going to be thinking about this past week. About your generosity. About the stories you shared with me. About the people you told me you were riding alongside me for, even from far away.
You gave me fuel that no training plan could ever provide.
I am going to work harder on that loop because of you. I will carry every one of you with me when I do.
Thank you. From the bottom of my whole heart, thank you.
Want to still be part of it? It’s not too late to donate or share my page. Every dollar continues to make a difference. Link below.
More About The Author
Lia Esposito is a digital marketing professional whose passion is the intersection of creativity and analytics. She is an MBA candidate at UNC Kenan-Flager.