|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
While the coronavirus pandemic and its implications have dominated headlines and public health policy discussions recently, a number of local high school volunteers have maintained their focus on garnering awareness for what has been a leading cause of death since long before COVID-19.
Led by local youth volunteers, San Ramon community members gathered at Six Pillars Park on Sept. 18 for a downsized, local Lights of Hope event, aimed at putting faces and names to the ongoing impacts of cancer.
“Throughout the pandemic, cancer hasn’t stopped and neither have we. We’re still here advocating for cancer patients and survivors, for cancer research funds and access to health care” said Isha Sarkar, a Dougherty Valley High School senior and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) student ambassador.
Localizing and downsizing the event was an answer to challenges posed by the pandemic.
Lights of Hope has long been ACS CAN’s signature event, which typically draws a significantly larger crowd from around the country to the national monument in Washington D.C. Given cancer patients’ increased vulnerability to COVID, the organization has instead opted for a series of smaller, community-centered and virtual events in the wake of the pandemic.
The shift to community events placed the task of organizing squarely on the shoulders of local volunteers. Locally, this gave highly engaged ACS CAN volunteers at Dougherty Valley the chance to put their aptitude for community engagement, outreach and organization to use, and to enjoy the benefits of their hard work.
“People cried because of the caregiver stories, then they would stop crying, then the music started, and people just started crying even more,” Sarkar said. “Seeing people spread their stories like that really touched my heart and gave a space to what I’m doing.”
Sarkar has been volunteering with ACS CAN through Dougherty Valley High since her freshman year. She cites numerous personal reasons, including inspiration from her great-grandmother who had cancer, as well as her own battle with epilepsy, as among her motivations. However, according to Sarkar and her fellow volunteer and classmate, Aarya Ghosalkar, it was the well-established community of cancer activists at their school that has kept them inspired, and made them want to be as involved as possible.
“For students at DVH, it’s always kind of been homecoming, relay and prom,” Sarkar said.
Going to the school’s Relay for Life event, which generally draws roughly 400 people annually, is what Ghosalkar cites as key for her own involvement with ACS CAN at Dougherty Valley. She and Sarkar have moved up the ranks since their freshman years, currently serving as student ambassadors for the network.
“Being able to have that empathy for other people and know that it affects so many people, not just in the U.S. but across the world, is something that resonated so much and that I wanted to continue,” Ghosalkar said.
In addition to providing a communal space in which to give faces and names to people affected by cancer, Sarkar and Ghosalkar, as well as other student volunteers, aim to draw the attention of policymakers. Speakers at the Lights of Hope event reflected that goal, bringing the conversation back to matters ranging from flavored tobacco bans to battling health inequities.
According to ACS CAN regional grassroots manager Mary Kemp, Dougherty Valley students are well-represented in the network, not just due to a culture in which Relay for Life is seen at the same level as homecoming and prom, but also because of their relative independence, compared to other schools she works with.
“They don’t have that typical one-on-one support that larger ACS events around the nation might have,” Kemp said. “I think that demonstrates the ingenuity and creativity that students can and do have when we let them take things on themselves.”
Although Kemp works with students throughout the region and is accustomed to being touched by their hard work at emotionally charged events, she noted that the Lights of Hope event at Six Pillars even brought her to tears. While her role is to provide support to students, she also said watching students take initiative is a major source of inspiration.
“Sometimes I think adults, we overthink things, and spend so much time planning that we don’t accomplish or get to the end point of what we wanted to do,” Kemp said. “These students really decide ‘I’m going to do this’ and do it. Their sense of accountability and commitment is amazing. I think there’s a lot of lessons adults could learn from them.”
The next public event hosted by ACS CAN volunteers at Dougherty Valley is set to be a “Pinkout” game, aimed at breast cancer awareness, on Oct. 15.
“We’d love anyone in the community to come support our football team, but also the ACS community,” Ghosalkar said.
-
Dougherty Valley High School’s newly-formed acapella club, in their debut performance at the Lights of Hope event in San Ramon on Sept. 18. (Photo Courtesy of Mary Kemp) -
Community members gathered for the Lights of Hope event in San Ramon on Sept. 18. (Photo Courtesy of Isha Sarkar and Aarya Ghosalkar.)
