NEWS

PROCLAMATION

  “CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH”

Each year more than 10,000 children and teenagers in North America are diagnosed with cancer, 3,000 of whom will die as a result and one in every 330 Americans develop cancer before the age of 20. Cancer is the number one disease killing our children today, taking more lives than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.  Optimist International established the Childhood Cancer Campaign (CCC) in hopes of bringing greater service to affected families, helping to fund research and supporting projects at the local community level and Optimist International observes Childhood Cancer Awareness Month each year in June to raise awareness of this disease that is often overlooked in its magnitude as well as in the funding allocated for medical research. 

NOW THEREFORE, I, Joseph T. McElveen, Jr., Mayor of the City of Sumter, South Carolina, do hereby proclaim, June 2008 as: 

“CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH”

in the

CITY OF SUMTER 

and urge all citizens, government agencies, public and private institutions, and businesses in the City of Sumter to support the Sumter Optimist Club, the Evening Optimist Club, and the Palmetto Optimist Club in their efforts to raise funds for research and to increase public awareness of the devastating effects this disease has on children and their families.

                                                                                    Joseph T. McElveen, Jr., Mayor