Rockefeller Cancer Institute hosts annual Be-A-Part-Of-The-Cure walk

Little Rock, Arkansas — In order to support all Arkansans affected by cancer, The Little Rock community came together to walk.

On Saturday morning, The Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute hosted its second Be-A-Part-Of-The-Cure Walk at War Memorial Stadium in order to bring the community together to honor all Arkansas cancer patients and survivors.

The official emcee of the event, Danyelle Musselman, shared how proud she was to be a part of this event. “We are out here fundraising for cancer and we are really just honoring survivors, honoring those who we’ve lost to cancer. It’s really such a great event and it’s so wonderful to see the community come together for such a good cause,” Musselman said.

The opening ceremony kicked off with music, a survivor picture, and a raffle drawing of a basketball signed by Coach Eric Musselman.

Danyelle Musselman shared her personal reasons for wanting to be a part of the cure. “7 or 8 years ago I decided that I wanted to ya know actively do something to fight cancer to help those in the future. My mom is a breast cancer survivor. She lost both of her parents to cancer so it’s something that’ve been deeply affected by and I just… I want to prevent that from happening to someone else,” Musselman said.

More than 1,000 survivors, patients, family, and caregivers all signed up to show their support and appreciation.

The Special Events Coordinator at Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Daniel Frazier is also a cancer survivor and spoke about why the walk means so much to him. “Oh, if you’re a survivor you have to come out here if you get a cancer diagnosis, you get thrown into this club we don’t anticipate being thrown into but once you’re there you have to celebrate your progress and your prognosis and that you’re here but we can’t forget the people that we pay homage too are maybe not with us anymore… so we celebrate them too,” Frazier said.

The walk raised over $200,000, with the help of their founding sponsor, Hickingbothman Investments, that will stay in Central Arkansas to assist with cancer research. Next year’s be-a-part-of-the-cure walk will be held on May 6th.