“We hope to create a newly awakened sense of hope and joy for life by encouraging our members to stop letting cancer define their lives and start living for each day”. These words are strong and powerful, and come from the “About” page on our website. We at Live for Today believe strongly in our mission and want to help others feel the same encouragement and zest for life that we’ve found. Being diagnosed with cancer isn’t easy…or fair, but it’s our reality. So everyday our members strive for a positive attitude and to enjoy the day…because they can. We like to celebrate that joy for life by getting everyone together on a regular basis for a fun and engaging outing.
Spring was in the air, and what a better way to celebrate Spring, than with America’s favorite pastime? This April our members spent a warm Thursday night at the baseball grounds of Jacksonville cheering on the Jacksonville Suns. Baseball has been one of our country’s timeless traditions, and always inspires. We can all probably remember watching the Sandlot as kids, and while our members might not have quite the passion that those youngsters did…they sure could cheer on our local team!
It was exciting to see so many new faces; our LFT family is growing and reaching more young adults, connecting them to support. Welcome new and deserving members! We all had a great time chatting and getting to know each other,many who were attending their first LFT event. That night we broke a LFT record with 6 new members attending the Suns game, the highest new member turnout we’ve had so far. We would all like to welcome and thank Betty, Zachary, Iyan, Pavel, Ginger, and Lauren for attending their first event! We look forward to getting to know each and every one of you more at the next few events.
Over the last two years of programming, Live for Today has grown to over 50 members! We were particularly excited that after a year and a half of being female dominant, we have added several wonderful male additions to our group. Alex, who was one of our first LFT members, was stoked to make friends with some of the new guys over baseball. It wasn’t until almost the 7th inning that Pavel, our new member from Russia, admitted he had no idea what was going on in the game and had never seen even one inning of baseball before. After a quick chuckle we tried our best to explain the American tradition to Pavel so late in the game. The conversation quickly moved along and we did find out that Pavel knows fencing and was a professional fencer back in Russia! How cool is that?? Meanwhile, another new member and CPA Zachary, was just happy to be out of the office and enjoying a beer…because tax season was finally over!
Since our demographic is young adults, we started out with many members in college or in their early twenties, but while we’ve grown, we’ve met some of the older (late 20’s and early 30’s) members who have families of their own. Dominic attended the game with his wife and kids and we learned that another baby is on the way…so BIG congrats to the DeLuca family! Katie, a mother herself, enjoyed getting to know some of the other moms, Ginger and Lauren, while also enjoying a night out with her husband, away from their little one. As we continue to grow we plan to implement some family friendly events so that all of our members can show their families how we Live for Today!
As conversations grew into friendships, many of us enjoyed each others company over some traditional baseball snacks. The Suns became victorious right as the rain started to fall and as the game ended, old and new friends exchanged hugs and goodbyes. We want to send our members who will be traveling this summer well wishes. We know that Cassandra will be traveling North again to spend the summer with her fiance Ryan, and Pavel will be in Russia most of the summer. A huge thank you to the Jacksonville Suns for helping make our event possible. We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe summer and we look forward to more great events together in the future!
