Passion for horses and St. Jude drive woman's volunteer spirit


Riders during the 2007 Buck Creek Trail Ride. Photo by Rita Bruner.

Riders take part in the 2007 Buck Creek Trail Ride in 2007. On
September 26 – 28, coordinator Kathy Moore will host her
10th annual Saddle Up for St. Jude® event. Photo courtesy of
Rita Bruner.


In 1999, when Kathy Moore agreed to coordinate a trail ride in Alamo, Tennessee, for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, she knew it would be a fun event and that it would help children battling cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

But a decade later she neither expected to be celebrating her 10th anniversary ride nor did she think that she would be raising the kind of funds she has been raising for the hospital.

“I did not think I would still be going 10 years later,” Moore says. “But this is my passion.”

Moore volunteered to coordinate a Saddle Up®  for St. Jude event after relocating from Arkansas to Tennessee. She had enjoyed participating in Saddle Up events while living in Arkansas but couldn’t seem to find one in her new location. So she opted to do it herself.

In doing so, Moore became one of thousands of volunteers who coordinate a Saddle Up for St. Jude campaign. Saddle Up events have long been a staple of St. Jude fundraising, combining people’s love of horses and being outdoors with their compassion and caring for the children of St. Jude.

Through a Saddle Up event, a volunteer organizes a trail ride for horseback riding enthusiasts or first time riders. Prior to the ride, the participants raise money for St. Jude through donations from friends and family members.

“I wanted to get people together to ride, but they needed a purpose,” Moore says. “And St. Jude was a good purpose to get them going.”

And for 10 years, she has given the people of Alamo a purpose to ride for at the Buck Creek Trail Ride. Following the first event, which had about 65 riders raise about $2,800, Moore’s Saddle Up has grown to encompass three days of fun, music, games and, of course, a trail ride.

And as attendance has grown to more than 400 riders, so has the donation to St. Jude, which has topped more than $23,000 for the past four years.

Although she lived in Arkansas for a while, Moore grew up in Tennessee. It was during her school years that Moore learned of St. Jude, not just from television, but from knowing fellow classmates who were treated at the hospital founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. But in those early days, the fight against leukemia was difficult. “There were kids in my school with leukemia who died,” she reflects. “But St. Jude has come so far now.”

Moore is thankful for the strides St. Jude has made in increasing the survival rates of childhood cancers. For acute lymphoblastic leukemia alone, St. Jude has pushed the survival rate from 4 percent in 1962 to 94 percent today. “Now it is a whole different ballgame. It is unbelievable.”

It is that progress that drives Moore to continue to support St. Jude and to continue organizing her Saddle Up program.

“I don’t have any children and I have never had a member of my family need St. Jude and I hope and pray that never has to happen,” Moore says. “But I feel like doing this will help the kids there. And if something were to happen to my family, I know I have done my part.”

 

If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer Coordinator or would like to participate in a Saddle Up event, please call 1-800-567-0675.

 

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April 2008


 


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