Light The Night Walk

Specialties

Each year, in communities all across the United States and Canada teams of families, friends, co-​workers and local and national corporations come together to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS’s) Light The Night Walk events and bring help and hope to people battling blood cancers.

Every Light The Night walker is encouraged to become a Champion For Cures by raising $ 100 or more to help fight blood cancer.

Light The Night Walk events are evenings filled with inspiration. During this leisurely walk, walkers carry illuminated balloons — white for survivors, red for supporters and gold in memory of loved ones lost to cancer — thousands of walkers — men, women and children — form a community of caring, bringing light to the dark world of cancer.

History

Established in 1949.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) was born out of a family’s grief following the death of their teenage son.

Robert Roesler de Villiers, son of a well-​to-​do New York family, was only 16 when he quickly succumbed to leukemia in 1944. Five years later, frustrated by the lack of effective treatments for what was then considered a hopeless disease, parents Rudolph and Antoinette de Villiers started a fundraising and education organization in their son’s name.

Driven by the de Villiers’ nearly boundless belief that leukemia and other blood cancers were indeed curable, the Foundation grew steadily, opening its first chapters in the New York City area. The organization, after changing its name to The Leukemia Society, was renamed The Leukemia Society of America in the 1960s to communicate a broad, national reach.

The annual Light The Night Walk is a national fundraising campaign for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.