Kilted To Kick Cancer 2017 Begins On a Somber Note

The 2017 Kilted To Kick Cancer Fundraising Challenge begins Thursday at midnight, little more than 36 hours from now. As we’ve done since 2011, we spend the month of September wearing kilts, and using that as our conversation starter to raise awareness for male specific cancers. KTKC is a labor of love for us; we donate well over 90% of the funds solicited directly to cancer research, and our paid is made up of unpaid volunteers.

Twenty fundraising teams will soon be soliciting donations for Kilted To Kick Cancer, vying to be one of the top four fundraisers to receive a nice prize package donated by our partners in the public safety and shooting community. Right about now is when challenges are issued, gauntlets are thrown, side bets and dares are made, and everyone tries to top one another in stunts to raise more money. People have offered to shave their mustache. People have offered to shave half their mustache. People have promised – and delivered – to wax their junk and their entire bodies to raise more money. One fundraiser even offered to live stream his prostate exam. It’s always tongue-in-cheek, and no dare or challenge is considered too zany.

But right now, it all seems a bit inappropriate.

People along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast are homeless. Some are dead. Many thousands have lost everything they have the Hurricane Harvey, and the worst is yet to come for some communities. Many more are still trapped in rising floodwaters. Even some of our own fundraising teams have been driven from their homes.

And in the face of all that, asking you to donate to fund cancer research just seems like a bit much. You shouldn’t have to choose between supporting a cancer charity and helping people in immediate need.

Yet, a cancer charity is what we are. Raising awareness and funds for cancer research is our purpose. Happy Medic, MotorCop and I wrestled with the decision of what to do. But we all decided, cancer doesn’t take a day off for the weather, and neither are we.

So this year, we’re not asking for you to choose. We want you to donate what you can, to whom you can, for whatever purpose your heart tells you. We’re all members of the human race, with far more in common than what divides us, and we all need to help each other. And Kilted To Kick Cancer is proud to be a member of the community of giving.

This next month, we’ll still be soliciting funds for cancer research. If you choose to support us, go to the KTKC donation page, choose the fundraising team you’re supporting, and drop some cash to a good cause. And if your conscience tells you that your money is best spent helping the victims of Hurricane Harvey instead, well, we’re going to support that, too. We’ll even count those donations toward your favorite Kilted Fundraising Team. All you have to do is donate to one of the four Hurricane Harvey Charities on the KTKC Fundraising Challenge page. Forward your donation receipt to me at [email protected], with your team’s name as the subject line.

So, for example, if you want to donate $100 to J.J. Watt’s Fundraiser for Hurricane Harvey Relief in the name of Team Corpus Christi, just send the donation receipt to me, and make the subject “Credit Team Corpus Christi,” and they’ll get credit toward the fundraising total in the challenge.

So go forth, strap on your kilts, give generously, and encourage others to do so. This year, we’ve got more than enough worthy causes to go around.