$72,000 Closer to a Cure

Pink Polka Dots Junior Guild

On September 12, the Pink Polka Dots Junior Guild of Lake Forest Park hosted their 9th Annual Sydney Coxon Memorial Golf Tournament.

Each year, the Seattle Children’s Hospital Junior Guild teams up with LMI Aerospace, Inc., and the Coxon Family Foundation to host an afternoon of golf followed by an inspirational evening program. The tournament, dinner, and silent auction capped off another year of successful fundraising, bringing in over $72,000! 

Card sales in Lake Forest Park

Founded by local 6th graders after losing their friend, Sydney Coxon, to a brain tumor in 2006, the Pink Polka Dots are focused on funding research to cure cancer. You may have seen members selling handmade cards and gifts at the LFP Third Place Commons Holiday and Farmer’s Markets, or selling lemonade along the Burke Gilman trail this summer. Their custom made art cards are also available at The Gallery, the store run by Shoreline/LFP Arts Council in the LFP Town Center.

After nine years, these charitable youngsters and their families are ever closer to their goal of raising one million dollars to fund groundbreaking research for better treatments, and hopefully someday a cure, for pediatric brain tumors.

Cancer researcher Dr. Jim Olson
spoke of new discoveries

The Pink Polka Dots’ fundraising proceeds support the work of Dr. Jim Olson, who was the keynote speaker at the event. The funding has allowed researchers at Children’s Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to develop exciting new treatments including “Tumor Paint.”

Dr. Olson announced that Tumor Paint, a drug derived from scorpion venom, which makes cancer cells glow for more precise surgical removal, is now available and has been used successfully in the first patients, including a young boy with a brain tumor.

The latest effort in the Olson Lab, “Project Violet”, involves discovering and producing cancer-fighting optide drugs from natural sources, like flowers. Funding from Guilds and patient families is critical to researchers' ability to keep moving forward to save lives of children and adults with many types of cancers, and potentially other diseases like Alzheimers and diabetes. 

It’s not too late to help fund research for a cure -- and have fun doing it! Pink Polka Dots’ next fundraiser, an all-ages Karaoke Night at Community Fitness in Seattle, is happening this Saturday October 3rd, with professional Karaoke DJ provided by Quality Karaoke. 

To buy tickets to Karaoke Night, read more about Dr. Olson’s research, and make a donation to the Pink Polka Dots, visit their website.