One of the perks of being sick as a child is getting to curl up on the couch in your pajamas for a day of rest and bad television.
But when all you ever get to wear is pajamas and you live under a cloud of doubt about your future and your prognosis — like if you’re facing pediatric cancer — the idea of the simple wardrobe loses a lot of its luster.
To support those kids at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Dr. William J. Waters Center for Children’s Cancers and Blood Disorders, Paige’s Butterfly Run is asking community members to wear their pajamas in honor of the kids that have to do so.
“When our kids with pediatric cancer are in the hospital, they’re in their pajamas, often a lot longer than they want to be,” said Paige’s Butterfly Run’s Ellen Yeomans. “Especially with school groups, you have this moment of thinking, when you’re sick at home, it’s kind of fun to wear your jams and watch TV. But for these kids, it’s a whole lot longer and a whole lot scarier. We want to bring a little awareness to what’s going on with our kids who have been diagnosed with pediatric cancer.”
That’s where the idea for Paige’s Pajamarama came from. The fundraiser asks schools, businesses and community groups to wear pajamas for a day in exchange for a donation to the run. Organizers send out a packet of information on how to participate, including suggested donations, activities and more. Participants are urged to supplement their fundraising efforts with a bake sale or dance for schools or raffles for businesses. While there will be a community-wide Pajamarama event on April 17, schools, businesses and other groups can choose their own date if the larger one doesn’t work with their schedule.
This is the second year for the Pajamarama, which is an extension of the fundraising juggernaut that Paige’s Butterfly Run has become. The run is named for Yeomans’ daughter Paige Yeomans Arnold, who was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in June of 1993. Paige passed away after complications from a bone marrow transplant at the age of 8.
Members of the Yeomans-Arnold family have dedicated their lives to helping kids like Paige — and sadly, there are many. Each year there are approximately 50 to 60 new patient diagnoses and upwards of 700 unique patient visits, including new, ongoing and returning patients at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital alone. One in 330 children will be diagnosed with some form of cancer by the time they’re 20 years old, meaning the incidence is greater in children and adolescents than any other age group except for those over 65. The average age of diagnosis is just 6.
In order to try to change those numbers and honor their daughter, Paige’s family, in conjunction with Palmer Elementary School in Baldwinsville, where she was a student, organized a run in 1997. The first run attracted a little more than 200 people and raised about $2,000. Last year’s event, held at the James M. Hanley Federal Building in Syracuse, drew thousands of runners and raised $224,000.
The Pajamarama is a chance to increase those totals, all of which benefit the children’s hospital, as well as reach a larger audience.
“This hospital serves kids all the way from the Canadian border down to the first couple of counties in Pennsylvania and all across New York state,” Yeomans said. “When you have kids from farther out who are diagnosed, a lot of schools want to do something on their behalf, but those kids are less likely to come to the run because of the distance. The Pajamarama is something they can do in honor of their classmate. It gives them a way to participate but do it right from their school.”
Yeomans said the organizers encourage participants to set their own rules.
“We give them a suggested amount, but we really prefer to let the school decide for itself, because they know better what their community can do,” she said. “If a quarter per child is best so that everyone can participate, that’s great. Some do a dollar. We want to let the schools determine the amount, because they know their own folks.”
Rules are a little different for businesses.
“For businesses, we suggest they bring in $5 for the honor of wearing their pajamas,” Yeomans said. “Some companies do fun things. They’ll decide that if you don’t wear PJs, you have to pay more than if you did. And there are some people who can’t – they have a meeting that day or something and they have to wear regular business clothes, but they can give us a nice donation.”
Participants also have discretion as to what constitutes pajamas.
“With some companies, they’ll do pajama bottoms with a shirt and tie. It’s a fun look,” Yeomans said. “Schools can be very specific about what’s considered pajamas and what’s not. Again, they know what’s best for their school.”
Last year was the Pajamarama’s first year. While much of the event will remain the same, there will be some additions.
“We learned that we need to have stickers. That’s something we figured out right away,” Yeomans said. “We send out a packet they can download, and it includes a card they can put in their lobby or whatever that explains why people are in their PJs. What we realized is that it might be handier if we also provide stickers for people to wear, so if they’re running to the grocery store or something and people see them in their PJs, they’ll have something on them explaining why and what they’re doing.”
This year, a number of community organizations are also participating in the Pajamarama.
“We’ve met with some community groups, book clubs and Bunco groups and that kind of thing, that want to help out,” Yeomans said. “They pick a meeting date, say their Bunco night, and decide that’s the day they’re wearing their PJs and bringing a donation. A lot of them are also making a gift basket for us that we’ll raffle off during the run, which is a wonderful service for us. We don’t have to collect that stuff all year, and they’ve made a beautiful basket for us.”
Yeomans said the event offers more than an opportunity to raise money for pediatric cancer research and support.
“The money being raised is obviously a good thing for us, and we put it to work making kids’ lives better up there. But more than that, it’s a way to support our kids with pediatric cancer,” she said. “These kids are stuck in their pajamas again, but they’re supported by people all over the community. And it’s not just on the day of the run or on their birthday but all the time. [They get to see that] people in the community are thinking about them more often than just once in a while.”
Email Yeomans at [email protected] to register for this year’s event, to start your own or for more information.
