I'm writing to you to tell you about an endeavor I will be challenging myself with over New Years in honor of Landon Ahrendt, who fought hard for 21 months but lost his courageous battle with pediatric cancer in May 2014 at the age of 10.

Let me start from beginning. Landon & my son Barrett became best friends on the first day of kindergarten at Foster Elementary. From there came carpooling daily to/from school, sports together (Trailwood swimteam, soccer, flag football, basketball) hours of playing and watching wrestling, bracelet looming, Mario obsession, learning to ride bikes together, trampoline jumping, basically the two became brothers and their friendship brought our families together. Life was good. 

Then what was a bump on the top of Landon's foot became what we soon learned was cancer, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer.  Landon fought hard. He faced many rounds of chemo and radiation. His friends and sisters -Haley (20) and Teigan (16) stood by Landon, supported him by having fundraisers, a balloon release, a bench donated to Foster in honor of Landon, hospital visits, L3 t-shirts made and sold to name a few. This leadership and desire to make a difference, along with Landon's desire to help other families fighting childhood cancer and research to find a cure has lead to the forming of the L3 Foundation- Live Love Landon. Our slogan is KIDS HELPING KIDS FIGHT CANCER.

The L3 Foundation recently donated $100,000 to Texas Children's Hospital where we have a group of doctors working specifically on a project that focuses on immunotherapy and gene therapy instead of the use of toxic chemicals like chemotherapy. The L3 Foundation holds 3 annual fundraising events- Dancers Kickin' Cancer, the L3 Turkey Day 5K and Wishbone 1K and Holiday at the Harbor.

The L3 Foundation challenges us ALL to DO SOMETHING! Something to make a difference in the fight against pediatric cancer. So I'd like to share with you what I am going to do to make a difference. I love running, being outside and challenging myself.  So what better way to do something than to challenge myself to run 100 miles over New Years?!?!

There is a race called the Snowdrop Ultra 55. Its a 55 hour race at Sugarland Memorial Park where I will run, walk,crawl around a .75 mile loop until I reach 100 miles!!  I am looking for donations that will benefit the Snowdrop Foundation. Snowdrop Foundation funds pediatric cancer research and college scholarships for pediatric cancer patients and childhood cancer survivors. Both of my sons will be on relays teams where they too will be running during allotted times over the 55 hours!