Stomping out cancer

September is national children’s cancer awareness month and Saturday one local winery did their part to help try and stomp cancer out.

Saturday the Harvest Ridge Winery the second annual Grape Stomp was held to raise money to fund children’s  cancer  research at Alfred I. Dupont Children’s  Hospital or A.I. as many call it.

According to research each year across the world  nearly 100,000 children under 15 die from cancer, or about 25 per day. Statistics like that are part of the reason the Nunan Family who owns the winery decided to hold the event.

“When we first found out that September was childhood cancer awareness month we knew we wanted to give back, giving back is something big that the Nunan family likes to do especially with children,” said Nan Nunan, charitable events coordinator for the winery.

Nunan says registration for each team was $125 dollars,while entry to the event cost patrons $10 dollars. Nunan says half of that money the will be donated directly to the children’s oncology unit at AI Dupont.

Health officials from AI tell say that only four percent of the money raised for cancer research actually goes to researching children’s cancer. That’s why they say all the money raised here at the grape stomp really does make a difference in saving kids lives.

“The way I think of it, if we can save one child’s life, if one child can grow up, become a full contributing adult for society, what have we done? That’s an amazing thing,” said Diane Hochstuhl, director of trauma and transport for AI Dupont Hospital.

Last year the event raised $10,000 dollars and this year Nunan says they expect to double that. Nunan says the numbers won’t be in until Tuesday,but judging by the sheer amount of people at the event they believe they’ll hit their goal.