C OMMUNITY Page s Your stories, your voices JULY , 2008 Community Calendar IVip to Crumpler The Funtime Club will trav el to Crumpler, N.C. Aug. 16. There, the group will tour the Cheese Factory and store and visit the Farmer's Market and enjoy traditional country food. The bus will leave Northside Shopping Center at 7:30 a.m. and return by 6 p.m. Call 336 767-0105 for more informa tion. NARFE picnic The National Active and ? Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) will hold its annual Independence Day picnic on July 11 at Miller Park, Shelter #1, starting at 1 1 :30 a.m. The meeting is open to current and retired Federal employees. For more informa tion call 336-721-1783. July AARP meeting The local AARP chapter will host the program. "The Creativity Within Us,"* featur ing Sofiya Griggs on Tuesday, July 8 from 9 - 10:30 a.m. at Winston-Salem State University's Anderson Conference Center. The meet ing will be followed by an ice cream social. All AARP Chapter Meetings are open to the pub lic, particularly persons age 50 and older. For more informa tion, contact Nancy Hall at 3360-765-2215 or at nancap py@msn.com. AA available to those in need ALCOHOLICS ANONY MOUS (AA) offers informa tion and support for alcoholics and their families through group discus sion meetings offered on a daily basis at a variety of con venient times and locations. For a schedule, visit www.w saa.org or call Alcoholics Anonymous Hotline at 336 725-6031. LEAP program accepting applications Kennedy Learning Center is accepting applications for 2008-2009. There are limited 6 7, 7-8, and 8-9 Leap slots avail able. Students must have been retained and be over the age for his or her current grade. Students must apply to LEAP and participate in a par ent/student interview with KLC personnel. Students most likely to be successful are those who are proficient in reading and math with few behavior or attendance problems. KLC is at 1000 Highland Avenue. Call 336- 727-2085 for more infor mation. Church Anniversary Red Bank Baptist Church will be celebrating its 118th Church Anniversary on Sunday. July 27 during the 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. services. The Rev. Ronald Fisher, pastor of Dreamland Park Baptist Church, will be the 3 p.m. speaker. The chairpersons for the program are Deacon William and Sister Rematha Harris. The pastor is the Rev. James R. Clyburn Sr. Everyone is invit ed to attend. The church is located at 6405 Red Bank Rd. in German ton. The Code 3 for a Cure has logged thousands of mile. i I ^ Local Battalion chief Frankin Stowe, right, chats with the Lorenzo Abundiz and his wife. Jennifer Stanley, center, holds a photo of her deceased son as she is surrounded by her family. a riHHUS ny la roiwici Extinguishing the Flame of Cancer Cure Caravan comes through Winston-Salem BY LAYLA FARMER / THE CHRONICLE ? As a retired fireman, Lorenzo Abundiz knows a thing or two about staring danger and death in the face. So when he was diagnosed with a rare and highly aggressive form of cancer known as leiomyosarcoma in 1998, Abundiz wasn't about to roll over and die. Since the cancer was discovered, he has been medically retired from the Santa Ana, Calif. Fire Department. The can cer's origin, he was told, likely stemmed from his job. "(Firefighters') rates of cancer are going a lot higher than the normal people because we're exposed to all these carcino gens," he explained. "A lot of the cancers are attributed to the tar from roofs, roof fires. I'm fighting bladder cancer now, and that was attributed to tar and I've never been a smoker." Though it lacked the intense heat and bright flames he had become accustomed to extinguishing, Abundiz knew his new enemy was just as powerful and every bit as capable of devas tation. "I got tired from the cancer battles, and I thought to myself, 'Well, I've got to do something,"' he related. "I was laying in bed when they took my kidney out and I said, 'One day ... I'm going to take a fire engine across the country and celebrate my victory over cancer." On June 13, Abundiz set out to make his dream come true. The Code 3 for a Cure crew, made up of Abundiz's wife, Peggy, son, Jeremy, and longtime friend and fellow fireman John Mc Knight, piled into a donated fire truck and embarked on a journey that none of them would soon forget. Winston-Salem welcomed the team to its downtown Arnold Bullard Fire Station Monday afternoon. He came tq, me six months ago and he asked me point blank if I would mind driving a fire engine to New York City and back," related McKnight. "... I was fully committed to whatever needed to be done. I knew it was going to be a little hot, a little bouncy - (fire trucks) aren't designed for interstate travel - but my whole train of thought was that that's a very small price for me to be part of this mission." By the time the 8,800-mile excursion is complete, the crew will have visited 60 fire stations across the nation. "We've been meeting a lot of firefighters along the way, there's a lot of camaraderie, a lot of stories of hardship and struggles over cancer," Abundiz related. "It's been an eye See Cancer on B9 Lorenzo Abundiz receives a hug from Hugh Stanley's aunt, Rene Collins. The fire engine arrives in Winston-Salem.