Jefferson County walk raises $40,000 for those battling cancer

FORT ATKINSON — Cancer survivors, their families, friends, supporters and those currently undergoing treatment gathered Saturday at the Fort Atkinson High School track for the Jefferson County Cancer Coalition Cancer Walk.

The event, presented by the University of Wisconsin Cancer Center, raised approximately $40,000 which will directly benefit those in Jefferson County going through cancer treatment.

As part of the event, participants were able to learn about local resources, celebrate survivors and remember those who have been lost.

The Jefferson County Cancer Coalition uses funds from events like these to benefit individuals who, due to cancer, have been economically impacted.

“We help them with their mortgage or rent payments, energy bills, gas [and] food to help relieve some of the financial burden of going through cancer treatments,” Cancer Coalition Director Rachel Scuglik said.

“So far this year, we have helped over 44 members of Jefferson County that are going through treatments and have financially supplied over $110,000,” in 2024, Scuglik said.

Individuals undergoing treatment are able to receive up to three grants per year.

The Cancer Walk was initially organized by the Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce’s Project LEAD and was largely planned by Cancer Coalition President Jordan Dresdow, who gathered volunteers and sponsors.

“Our board is a completely volunteer-based board, and so everybody that was there yesterday was all volunteers through the community,” Scuglik said.

While some of the day’s activities had to be moved up or shortened due to rain Saturday, Scuglik said the group was still able to hold the event, even announcing raffle winners as people packed up and went home.

At first, people continued the laps around the tracks despite the rain.

“Eventually people stopped kind of walking and kind of huddled under their tents to wait to see if the rain was going to kind of subside a little bit. People did unfortunately leave a little bit earlier because of the rain, but we kept going,” Scuglik said.

Dozens of adults ran and walked laps, and about a dozen youth participated in the kids lap alongside mascots from beloved children’s television program Bluey.

“We may have ended a little bit sooner than we had initially planned from the rain, but other than that, people were troopers and stayed until they couldn’t take it anymore because it got kind of cold when you were all wet, but other than that it was great,” she said.

“Our big thing is just trying to raise as much as much money as possible that we can so we can help as many people going through treatment as possible,” Scuglik said. “That’s our main mission and doing an event like we did yesterday is extremely helpful. And it’s really great to see the community come together to support our cause and have the same mission as we do.”