Annual Team Julie Walkathon helps fight leukemia
By:Emily Craighead
Ali Cerza, a slight girl with a shy smile, brown hair and dangly pumpkin earrings, was in first grade when Julie Mitrani died of leukemia at age 10.
Friday afternoon, Ali, now 9 years old and in fourth grade, went to the Team Julie Walkathon to see her friends and run around the Amsterdam School field on one of the last warm and sunny days of fall.
But Ali also knew she was there for a more serious reason.
"It’s to remember the girl Julie," she said. "I think it’s good, but it’s also sad. It’s good to do things for her, and sad to remember what happened to her."
Julie, a little girl whose favorite color was pink and loved drawing, swimming, riding her bike, and sometimes annoying her older siblings, was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2001.
The original walkathon was planned to defray the cost of hospitalization for a bone marrow transplant for Julie in Seattle.
Julie died on Sept. 28, 2001, before she could make the trip.
"We decided at that point, we needed to make a negative a positive," said Bruce Mitrani, Julie’s father.
Each year since then, over 100 friends, neighbors, students, parents and teachers have walked to support Karen and Bruce Mitrani and raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
"It’s part of the healing process," Mr. Mitrani said. "For any parent who loses a child, it’s a very difficult process, but this is an absolute positive. It does our hearts good that she’s being remembered."
Mr. and Ms. Mitrani of Matrick Court and their two teenage children, David and Sarah, released 10 pink balloons at the start of the event to remember Julie’s age and her favorite color.
One blue balloon was also released to honor the memory of George Philip Hilger Jr., an Amsterdam music teacher who died of leukemia in April 2003, at age 44.
"We should use today’s gathering not just to recall Julie’s passing, but to celebrate her life," Amsterdam Principal Mike Rossi said.
Funds raised this year have not been totaled, but last year the walkathon and penny drives at other Hillsborough schools raised $3,723.90.