Childhood Cancer
Tour Da Yoop, Eh is partnering with U.P. Lions Serve to raise money for U.P. families battling childhood cancer.
Sign up. Pledge. Bike.
You can raise money through Tour Da Yoop, Eh. Every rider who signs up for the annual event receives a unique donation pledge page to help raise money for families in the UP who are battling childhood cancer. Riders can then go and start their own fundraising events, whether it be a pledge drive or an advertising campaign!
We raised over $113,000 in pledges in 2023. You can find the 2024 moving fundraising total here.
Riders aren’t the only people who can raise money—anyone can! Send us if you are interested in starting your own pledge page. Sign up on PledgeReg to start fundraising!
If you plan on donating via check please make the check out to “UPLS Childhood Cancer” and mail it to UPLS Childhood Cancer, PO Box 107, Engadine MI 49827.
THE CAUSE
Our mission Our mission is to serve children and families from the Upper Peninsula who are battling childhood cancer. We believe that when a child is sick, the entire family is affected. Our support focuses on the individual along with the entire family.
The Childhood Cancer program provides grants to families to minimize the financial hardship that is directly attributable to their child’s diagnosis, to cover needs for travel, medical and household bills.
We rely solely on donations from private benefactors, sponsors, lions clubs and other community organizations, foundations and fundraisers. Every dollar earned goes directly to the families and to the programs that serve them.
Our program assembles initiatives to help these families meet financial needs for travel, medical, and household bills.
We provide these families with other resources for getting care.
PURPOSE
Travel Costs: To receive care, our families must travel long distances. Our grants assist with travel costs, such as gas, food, and accommodations. Lions Clubs from around the U.P. provide toys, cards, hats, quilts, pillowcases, love, and more to let our families know they aren't alone.
Household Bills: Fighting cancer is expensive. Our grants help with bills, such as rent, utilities, groceries, and other housing related fees.
Medical Bills: Our grants help with medical bills, such as co-pays, deductibles, and other expenses that are not covered by insurance. In addition, we share information and connect families to other nonprofits that may help them, either in person or remotely, such as:
Programs We Support:
Northwoods AirLifeLine, a non profit organization of volunteer pilots from Michihgan’s Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin who donate their time and aircraft to airlift U.P. children and adults to various hospitals throughout the region for medical appointments and care.
Kids Kicking Cancer, an organization that teaches children with cancer the tools to manage pain and maintain strength through martial arts and meditation. Kids Kicking Cancer also teaches kids to be victors and not victims. Virtual classes are now available to children in the Upper Peninsula.
Maggie’s Wigs 4 Kids of Michigan. Children receive hair and skin restoration after hair loss at no cost to the families. This organization supports all children living in Michigan and Maggie's has helped several children from the Upper Peninsula.
THE STORIES
Meet Rylan.
Rylan has been on a long journey with Stage IV High Risk Neuroblastoma. After his first rounds of chemo treatments, Rylan was put in the category of “remission” in the summer of 2021. Unfortunately, his joyous milestone was short lived: within the first round of follow up scans, small tumors were detected. Soon afterwards, his parents received news that the cancer was building up immunity to the chemo he has been on. He is currently being admitted and will start his last-ditch effort: a much stronger form of chemotherapy.
Rylan is currently in a hospital 500 miles away from his family. The special challenges of living in a rural community hundreds of miles away from a care center is not an unusual hardship living here.
“During our first week at the hospital, our social worker told us about Chris Smith and U.P. Lions Serve. We contacted her right away and immediately the Lions started to help us both financially and emotionally. We have also been referred to many other organizations to assist with our entire family and what we are going through. I would like to say how grateful we are for everything the U.P Lions have done and are still doing for our family during this very difficult time. They have been like a soft fluffy cloud and a ray of sunshine that continues to make us feel as comfortable as possible since the start, and we can never thank them enough!”
— John, Rylan’s father
Meet Preslie.
“Preslie started her journey as a pediatric cancer patient. She was diagnosed with B cell ALL in mid-2020. After her first month of intense treatment, she unfortunately still showed minimal residual disease (MRD) with her bone marrow biopsy and was moved into a high risk category.
“The U.P. is a beautiful place of nature, but it is not a great place to live when you have a child fighting against cancer. We have no treatment facilities for children in the U.P.; our average trip is 523 miles long. At one point, we were doing daily chemo appointments. Any fevers or low counts that required a blood or platelet transfusion required another trip. The miles add up very fast.
U.P. Lions Serve and many other establishments, charities, family and friends helped make the most difficult times of our lives doable. Having to take a leave from both my job and my husband's work for the first year of our daughter's treatment left a financial strain on our family. Everyone stepped up during these most difficult times and helped us focus on our daughter, and they continue to help us focus on our daughter. The U.P. Lions are so much more than just financial support; we are so thankful they came into our lives.”
— Nikki, Preslie’s mother
Meet Eve
A few weeks after our daughter's first birthday, we were sent to the ER in Marquette after several days of mild yet worrisome symptoms that wouldn't go away. That same night, we were completely shocked and devastated to learn that she had a form of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma and had to be airlifted to a children's hospital immediately. She was admitted to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI and my husband and I dropped everything to be with her. That first hospital stay lasted for almost three weeks before getting discharged, and even then we weren't sure if we should spend too much time so far away from the hospital while she was getting treatment. We have spent more time in Grand Rapids in the last nine months than we have at our own home and traveled from Marquette to GR at least once every 1-2 weeks since last September. That's a seven hour drive one way with a toddler! We don't have access to certain things she needs for her treatment in Marquette, so sometimes even simple blood draws require us to be at the children's hospital and keep us away from home for a longer period of time. We also just had to spend over three weeks in NY for her surgery and we were so appreciative of the financial support that UP Lions Serve was able to provide for us during that time. UP Lions Serve has helped lighten the financial burden that we have experienced having to travel over 400+ miles each time just to get her the treatment she needs to fight this disease. Knowing we can count on them to help us if we are in need of gas money or help with groceries and other travel expenses is a huge relief, especially because our daughter's treatment requires so much travel. We are so grateful to have their support on this very difficult journey.
THE IMPACT
See our collection of videos and write-ups spotlighting our mission to support local families battling childhood cancer.
TOGETHER WE CAN
To view the most recent UPLS Childhood Cancer newsletter please click the button below.
If you want to learn more about the Upper Peninsula Lions’ Childhood Cancer program, visit their website.
Have a question?
Send us a message and we’ll get in touch.