Come Walk With Us At The Michael Hoefflin foundation’s Marathon for kids with Cancer

Matias Castro, Daniel Spears, and Lucas Castro

May 8, 2024

Come Walk With Us At The Michael Hoefflin foundation’s Marathon for kids with Cancer

Saturday April 20th was a very special event for our community. It was the Michael Hoefflin walk for kids with cancer.

The Michael Hoefflin Foundation Walk is an event that commemorates families whose children are fighting cancer, or families who have lost their children to the fight against cancer. At the walk, speeches are given by child cancer survivors, people that are affiliated with the Michael Hoefflin foundation, and by Michael Hoefflin’s parents.

Michael Hoefflin unfortunately lost his life to cancer on May 15th, 1996. While on the journey of fighting cancer, the Michael Hoefflan foundation was formed in September 1995. Michael left behind an extremely inspiring story, fighting hard every step of the way and even trying to help others in need while fighting.

The event housed many fun activities, including tons of fun games, inflatable bounce houses, a tall flight of stairs, to climb and descend, and volleyball and basketball for everyone to play and enjoy. The family and community ties were very strong at the event, and many emotions were shared, sad and happy.

The official walk started at 9:15 am, kicked off by the Golden Valley Jazz Ensemble. The walk had around 300 participants, and spanned all the way across Central Park. In addition, the Golden Valley Jazz Ensemble and the Saugus Jazz Band also performed live music for all of the event goers to enjoy.

The Michael Hoefflin walk was a very personal and special event to Golden Valley’s own band director, Angel Nazario. He stated “The walk is meant to spread awareness but also fundraise for their organization.”

We hope that in many years to come, we can see more participants taking part in this amazing event. This event has raised over $2 million in total to help with research for kids with cancer. This foundation has been a miracle for young children and has really given them hope to live their lives. We hope you can come support and walk with us next year!

About the Contributors

Matias Castro, Staff Writer

Matias Castro is a student journalist who is a high school senior and a saxophonist. He is one of the staff writers of the Campus News Team for the Grizzly Gazette. He is in the school Marching band, Symphonic band, and Advanced jazz band. He was a part of the William S. Hart district honor jazz band for the last two years and in the Hart District Symphonic Honor Band for two years. He also did the Colburn jazz workshop last year and is currently in a jazz combo and big band at colburn. He likes covering music topics, mostly jazz related. He is passionate about this topic because he is involved in this and music takes up most of the time in his life. Being a part of a student newspaper means a lot to him as he will be able to write about things he is passionate about and will be able to express his thoughts. Some hobbies of his are playing the alto saxophone and jazz is one of his main interests.

Daniel Spears, Staff Writer

Daniel Spears is a high school senior, a staff writer for the Campus News Team, and an aspiring saxophone player in the Santa Clarita Valley. He is in all of the band programs at school, including marching band, symphonic band, and advanced jazz band. He has made numerous honor groups through the William S. Hart School district, including the Hart District honor band for 2 years, and the Hart District honor jazz band for 1 year. The people selected to be in these groups are among some of the best musicians in the district, and potentially in the entire valley or state. Writing and researching music and the arts are what stand out to him the most, and covering these topics is definitely a specialty of his. Music is a big part of his life, and is what takes up most of his time outside of school. Being a part of the student newspaper, he wishes to cover topics that may be lesser known to people on the outside reading in.

Lucas Castro, Staff Writer

Lucas Castro is a senior at Golden Valley high school and one of the Grizzly Gazette’s staff writers on the CEPAT Team. He is involved in the school marching, symphonic, and jazz bands on campus. There have been many accomplishments that he has made, they include being in the district honor band for 2 years and the district honor jazz band for a year. He is very passionate about playing music and it is a big part of his life, so it will reflect in his writing. The reason why he is passionate about music is because he likes to get involved with the community through music and enjoys learning new things that give him a challenge. What being a student journalist in the school newspaper means to him is that he will be able to write about what he wants and express his ideas through his writing. Some of his hobbies include playing video games and playing his instruments saxophone and clarinet.