LIVESTRONG Day Local Event Ideas

Below are several ideas for LIVESTRONG Day events and activities to implement in your local community on Wednesday, May 16, to help make cancer a national priority.

1. Wear yellow on LIVESTRONG Day and encourage your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to do the same.  Official LIVESTRONG clothing and merchandise can be purchased online at www.store-laf.org. Proceeds from the LIVESTRONG Store benefit the LAF. 
   
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the issues cancer survivors face and the need to make cancer a national priority.
   
3. Ask people to stand with Lance and sign a petition to help make cancer a national priority.  (Additional materials will be provided to incorporate this activity into your event.)
   
4. Gather a group and deliver LIVESTRONG wristbands to elected officials in your local community and educate them about cancer survivorship issues.
   
5. Hold a candlelight vigil in honor of cancer survivors in your local community.
   
6. Have a local priest, minister or rabbi hold a survivorship spiritual ceremony at a local place of worship.
   
7. Organize a group to volunteer at your local cancer hospital/clinic or other cancer-related organization. 
   
8. Hold a cancer survivorship rally at a local park, your state capitol or other municipal building. 
   
9. Coordinate a parade in your community honoring local cancer survivors. 
   
10. Dedicate a local park or garden to cancer survivors. 
    

If you have additional LIVESTRONG Day event ideas to share, send an email to  livestrongday@laf.org.
 

Ideas for LIVESTRONG Day Events and Activities Involving Youth

Educators across the country inquired about LIVESTRONG Day events and activities in schools.  Here are a few ideas to encourage youth participation on LIVESTRONG Day. 

1. Encourage all students to wear yellow on Wednesday, May 16, as a show of support for people affected by cancer.  Also encourage them to wear a LIVESTRONG wristband.  Students also can create a linked wristband chain (made of yellow construction paper) to show support for local cancer survivors.
   
2. Have students prepare a presentation on Lance Armstrong, the mission of the LAF, and the needs of cancer survivors and their loved ones. 
   
3. Hold a penny drive on LIVESTRONG Day and donate all proceeds to the LAF.
   
4. If you have a child or teacher with cancer at your school, invite a local oncology nurse or social worker to explain the cancer experience and answer questions. 
   
5. Create a wall to pin descriptions of what LIVESTRONG means to each student.  It can also be turned into a photo memory board/wall in honor of or in memory of someone with cancer.
   
6. Ask students to create artwork or cards that can be given to a local pediatric oncology unit or a child/teacher with cancer at the school.  
   
7. Do a report on a book written by a cancer survivor or a book that addresses an experience with cancer.  Here are some recommendations:

• LIVESTRONG: Inspirational Stories from Cancer Survivors from Diagnosis to Treatment and Beyond by the Lance Armstrong Foundation now available in the LIVESTRONG Store.
• It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins
• Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins
• Keep Climbing: How I Beat Cancer and Reached the Top of the World by Sean Swarner and Rusty Fischer
• Here and Now: inspiring Stories of Cancer Survivors by Elena Dorfman and Heidi Schultz Adams
• No Boundaries: A Cancer Surgeon's Odyssey by LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. M.D.
• Voices from the Edge by Michael Hays Samuelson
• The Link to Beating Cancer: The Real Life story of a teenage cancer survivor by John Link