{"id":1314311,"date":"2019-09-05T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T00:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=987179"},"modified":"2019-09-05T18:53:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T00:53:00","slug":"rally-the-valley-goes-to-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rally-the-valley-goes-to-the-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally the Valley goes to the river"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Rally the Valley participants cross the finish line in 2017.<\/strong>
file \/ Post Independent |<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Bruce Anderson of Snowmass has been cancer-free since 2017, but this is the first time he will make it to Rally the Valley, the big fundraiser for the Calaway Young Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, I was coming off the fourth round of chemo, and not in a good place. It rained (the day of the rally), and I didn\u2019t go,\u201d Anderson said. The following year he had to travel for a checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and couldn\u2019t make the event.<\/p>\n

This year, he can hardly wait to join Rally the Valley Saturday at Two Rivers Park.<\/p>\n

Rally the Valley begins with a rafter check-in at 8:30 a.m. The commercial raft shuttle departs at 9:30 a.m. from Two Rivers Park and shuttles for those bringing their own raft or float will be available from 9:30-11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Walker registration begins at 10 a.m.; the walk itself begins at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Festivities in the park will go from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Rally the Valley has been a Glenwood Springs tradition for years, but this time the event will have a special river-themed twist.<\/p>\n

Instead of holding the rally at Sayre Park, the Valley View Hospital Foundation decided to host the fundraiser for the Calaway Young Cancer Center at Two Rivers Park, and organize a giant float down the Colorado River, from Grizzly Creek into Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Stacey Gavrell, executive director of the foundation, credits board trustee Ken Murphy, owner of Glenwood Adventure Company, with the rafting idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Ken Murphy who said, \u2018I think we can do something really exciting by bringing in our rafting community to this event,\u2019\u201d Gavrell said.<\/p>\n

Murphy owns Glenwood Adventure Company and offered his services, and before long, Defiance Rafting, Blazing Adventures and Blue Sky Adventures joined the cause.<\/p>\n

The Calaway Young Center provides more than just cancer treatment.<\/p>\n

Gavrell likes to think of it as providing holistic care through the duration of a person\u2019s battle with cancer, and Anderson agrees.<\/p>\n

Anderson spent most of 2016 visiting the Calaway Young center\u2019s oncologists seeking a diagnosis. When they couldn\u2019t find the origin of his cancer, they sent him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where they finally found the cause.<\/p>\n

Basically, his thymus, a gland that is normally active before puberty and shrinks later in life, \u201cwent on a rampage,\u201d Anderson said. The cancer caused several other respiratory and cardiac conditions that defied diagnosis.<\/p>\n

After several rounds of treatment at the Mayo Clinic, Anderson wanted to return home to Snowmass and arranged to finish treatment with Valley View.<\/p>\n

The treatment itself was excellent, Anderson said, and the cancer center is \u201cbecoming known as one of the key cancer centers in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Anderson also appreciated the other care that helped him cope with the physically and emotionally demanding treatment.<\/p>\n

Through the cancer center\u2019s Integrated Therapies department, Anderson received messages, acupuncture and a host of other services meant to help patients\u2019 wellbeing through the cancer treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are low moments when you\u2019re fighting for your life,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not fun physically, and therefore not fun mentally, or for the people around you. One of the things (Integrated Therapies) are really good at is changing the way you look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Float for hope<\/strong><\/p>\n

For cancer patients, Integrated Therapies is free of charge thanks to Rally the Valley and other donations.<\/p>\n

Tickets to enter the rally and walk the four-mile parade around Two Rivers Park are available at the gate. Registration for seats with the commercial rafting companies is closed, but people are welcome to bring their own rafts and stand-up paddleboards to join the flotilla.<\/p>\n

Organizers believe the float is the only one of its kind in Colorado, and hope it is successful enough to continue in years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want this to be a crowning event for Glenwood Springs,\u201d Gavrell said. \u201cWe have this incredible river that comes through, we have an awesome commercial rafting community that\u2019s partnering with us, and a world-class cancer center.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rally the Valley participants cross the finish line in 2017.file \/ Post Independent | Bruce Anderson of Snowmass has been cancer-free since 2017, but this is the first time he will make it to Rally the Valley, the big fundraiser for the Calaway Young Cancer Center. \u201cIn 2017, I was coming off the fourth round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 18:56:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}