By COOPER SLOUGH
Hays Post
Team Sinner is bringing its annual Light the Night fundraiser to Hays for the first time Saturday, from 6 p.m. to midnight, at TK’s Smokehaus, 114 E. 12th, in Hays.
Gun and prize raffles start at 6 p.m., and the Flat Spin Band will perform starting at 8 p.m.
Kristina Beck, team captain for Team Sinner, said LLS is a wonderful organization and that it’s an invaluable support system for leukemia and lymphoma patients.
“The people of LLS are wonderfully supporting, and 60 percent of their total donations go toward patient support and research,” Beck said. “Forty percent of the donations go to research and 20 percent to their support services.”
Beck also said she’s extremely proud of the work her team has done.
“I can’t express how proud I am of our team,” she said.
In their first year of operation, they only had two members — herself and Danny Sinner, the Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor the team is named after. By the end of their first year, they raised $547.
In 2015, their membership was up to 19 people, and the team raised $5,202.
This year, they have reached a new high of 21 members.
Team Sinner is a part of the Mid-America Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients in the United States.
In 2015, the LLS invested $57.2 million in blood cancer research, and an additional $41.8 million in patient assistance, which includes a copay assistance program.
Sinner, 59, is a native of Russell. He was diagnosed in June 2013 and has since gone into remission.
Sinner receives relief for his travel expenses from the LLS, but refuses the money from the LLS copay assistance program, insisting on paying for his copay himself.
In an Honored Hero interview done by the LLS for their newsletter, Sinner says he is not a hero, but simply that he is lucky.
“My dad taught me nothing is handed to you on a silver platter. You have to work for it — So I’m a worker,” Sinner said in the interview. “I don’t consider myself a hero. I consider myself lucky, very lucky to have survived this disease and, if I can help someone else do that, well, that’s what I want to do.”
To become involved in Team Sinner or for more information on the LLS Light the Night fundraiser, contact Beck at (913) 638-0381.
“We want to do our part in our little part of the world,” Beck said. “Only by raising our voices can progress be made.”