Ally's Army Pep Rally

I have mentioned on here before that 2 friends are running the Team in Training Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on behalf of Ally. One is her principal, and a friend of mine, Lisa Walk. The other is her PE teacher-Will Hamilton, who also so happens to be married to her current 2nd grade teacher! The Hamiltons spend a lot of time between them with our girl Ally. Lisa and Will have had to train in the worst of conditions all winter long and have raised over $5000 between them for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society with Ally as their honored hero.

Tomorrow is the big day....they are running! And it is supposed to be near monsoon conditions with heavy heavy rains. I am sure all their training will have paid off.

In preparation for their run, they held a pep rally at school to give Will/Lisa a good send off and give them an energy boost. Lisa got on the announcements and gave a wonderful talk about why they are doing this...that Valley is a family and family take care of their own...and (to paraphase) that it is hard work and sometimes when they don't feel like running anymore they just think of Ally and all the things that she has had to do that she didn't want to do either!

Then, about 600 kids lined the hallways of Valley Elementary and Lisa/Will ran up and down getting high fives from the kids. The whole time, the kids were chanting "Ally's Army...Ally's Army..." It was deafeningly loud and amazing to watch. It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in my whole life. I could barely focus through my tears, and it brings me to tears every time I even talk about it. All 600 kids...the Valley family...chanting one single chant. My girl's name. It was such an amazing show of support...for Will, for Lisa, for me....and for ALLY!

And what did Ally do? She blended right into the wall and sat quietly. Just taking it all in. She was in her "steroid trance" which was too bad because I think she would have been showing some ecstatic emotions if she felt normal. Luckily, I have the whole thing on video and can show her again.

I still can't believe what I saw that day. I saw it all through my clouded tears. Saw my friend sitting right next to me crying. Teachers crying. I even saw one of Ally's best friends all choked up in tears. It was amazing. They are amazing. Thank you Will and Lisa and Good Luck with your race. Thank you for running for her, but thank you most of all for being right there with us everyday...leaders of Ally's Army.

Watch the video..you will see. The cheers just keep getting louder and louder as it goes on.