Whip Pediatric Cancer: A Viral Initiative to Fight Pediatric Cancer Through Dance
Hauppauge, NY (PRWEB) August 21, 2015 -- Let's “whip” pediatric cancer out. A viral initiative launched by a Long Island teenager invites you to dance to help bring awareness about this illness and raise funds for research to improve treatments for the 15,000 children diagnosed with cancer every year in the United States.
Whip Pediatric Cancer, created by Jordan Belous, a 16-year-old girl living in Long Island, New York, provides information about pediatric cancer and a way to contribute by donating to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, thus helping fund research in this area.
As Belous explains on the website, she has been involved with several charities that help children with cancer, but decided to start the fundraiser for Sloan-Kettering because that's where her mother was treated for Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of the disease, 13 years ago. On the website she shares what the oncologist told her father about the prognosis: “If you came to us 10 years ago, your wife wouldn’t survive. If you came to us even 5 years ago, there is a chance your wife wouldn’t survive. But now I am asking you to give me one year of your life to treat your wife’s cancer and I will give her the rest of her life.”
Jordan was only a baby when her mother was diagnosed. Yet this piece of her family history made her realize that her mother’s recovery was possible because – years before the diagnosis – people had funded the research her mother would need to survive.
Belous was inspired to launch Whip Pediatric Cancer (which bears a similar spirit to the “ice bucket challenge” popularized in 2014 to help fight Lou Gehrig's Disease) after volunteering for a camp for children with cancer and seeing the kids doing “The Whip,” a dance popularized by the singer Silento in his song “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae).” She realized that's exactly what she wanted to do: “whip” pediatric cancer out. Thus, the initiative was born.
To participate you simply upload a video of yourself dancing “The Whip” to social media and share it with your friends along with the message: “I accept the Whip Pediatric Cancer Challenge! Have a heart of gold and do The Whip! #WhipPediatricCancer http://www.whippediatriccancer.org.” As Jordan says, “It doesn't have to be fancy and you don't have to get all the moves right. The most important thing is that you have fun, help spread the word, and raise money to fund pediatric cancer research.” Those who aren’t able to film a video can still support the movement by making a tax-deductible donation on the website.
There is also the element of competition, because once you have uploaded your video, you can challenge your friends to do the same, and they will have 48 hours to record and upload their own version. If enough people do this, Whip Pediatric Cancer will go viral, attracting donations for pediatric cancer research. Some have already stepped up to the challenge and you can watch their videos on the website.
Make a difference in young cancer patients’ lives now and in the future: that's the reason for Whip Pediatric Cancer, which might just become the next viral phenomenon on the Internet.
Seth Belous, Whip Pediatric Cancer, +1 (631) 445-8681, [email protected]
Share this article