Fundraiser steps up, supports Big Climb cancer research

There’s no doubt coronavirus is a big deal.

A really big deal.

But so, too, is blood cancer.

That’s why La Conner residents turned out in force at Santo Coyote Friday night to dine and support a local benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The event was organized by friends of La Conner High alum Mike Ritchie, a lymphoma survivor who has been training for the annual Big Climb fundraiser in downtown Seattle.

Ritchie will take part in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s steep stair climb up the Columbia Center, Seattle’s tallest skyscraper, which regularly draws over 5,000 participants poised to scale 69 floors of stairs, 1,311 steps, and 788 feet of vertical elevation gain.

“Although it will be challenging,” said Ritchie, “it pales in comparison to what blood cancer patients go through.”

He knows well of what he speaks.

Ritchie was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin Lymphoma between Christmas and New Year’s in December 2014.

“This,” Ritchie said, “was on the heels of losing my friend Trent Kaivo to leukemia. These two events were the beginning of my Big Climb journey.”

As with countless other large gatherings, this year’s Big Climb – originally scheduled for March 22 – has been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.

For Ritchie, who over the past five years has completely embraced the glass half-filled approach, it’s just a minor setback.

“For a lot of us,” he told the Weekly News, “we kind of procrastinated a bit with our training. This will give us a little extra time.”

Ritchie said it’s unclear when the Big Climb can be rescheduled given the uncertainties of coronavirus and logistics involved in securing the Columbia Center.

“There’s a lot that goes on there,” he said. “It takes a lot to clear out the building enough for five or six thousand people to do the Big Climb.”

But the fight to find a cure for leukemia and lymphoma won’t be deterred, he said.

Ritchie, who was a multi-sport athlete at La Conner High, is now cancer-free. He is determined to do what he can to make blood cancers a thing of the past.

He was joined at Santo Coyote – which pledged 10 per cent of the night’s profits to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – by family and local friends, many of whom have a direct connection to the famed Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and the late Dr. E. Donnal Thomas, the Nobel Prize winner who invented bone marrow transplantation as a potential cure for leukemia.

Rich and Karen Watkins, of Shelter Bay, noted with justifiable pride Friday that Dr. Thomas – though by then aged and in declining health – still recognized Rich by sight years after his treatment.

Ashlyn Reinstra, a former La Conner High and Skagit Valley College soccer standout who beat leukemia several years ago, was also present with her family at the Santo Coyote fundraiser.

In fact, Ashlyn’s mom, Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra, and Ritchie’s sister, Catey Ritchie, set up a take-out option for those preferring to not come out Friday due to coronavirus.

“If you’re not eating in at restaurants at this time because of the Covid-19 virus,” Jaime suggested beforehand, “you can always order take-out. It will be a great night to support Mike and his journey from being a patient to a survivor.”

And, indeed, it was.

If you'd like to make a donation or read more about the Big Climb, visit, https://www.llswa.org/site/TR?fr_id=1650&pg=entry