The Details

This softball clinic will include instruction on hitting, infield and outfield, from 2 All-State athletes, Kristen Schindler and Desi Giordano.

It is open to girls of all ages!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

When? January 21st, 10am-1pm

Where? Student Center Gym at Caldwell College

How do you sign up? Email Kristen Schindler at crushcancerclinic@gmail.com with name and age or participants

Cost? $20 minimum donation (cash or check, all checks made out to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society)

How Do You Sign Up?!

The first Crush Cancer Clinic will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 10am-1pm at Caldwell College.

The Crush Cancer Clinic is limited to 50 girls, so sign up as soon as you can!

Please RSVP to Kristen at crushcancerclinic@gmail.com with your name and age.

You can either send the $20 minimum donation in to:
Kristen Schindler 
95 Hatfield St.
Caldwell, NJ 07006


OR

On the day of the clinic, you can bring either cash or a check. 

The minimum donation is $20. Please make all checks payable to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Please note that pictures of the event and all participants will be taken and will be used to help promote the Crush Cancer Clinic. 

Crush Cancer Logo

Logo created by Kristen Schindler

This logo represents a community coming together and nobody standing alone against cancer.

Being an Athlete with Cancer

Cancer has a way of destroying the parts of you that you define yourself by. I felt cancer destroyed my ability to push my body to do great things. I am an athlete, but my treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma sucked away most of my energy. I played softball in college, and have invested years upon years into my athletic career. It took only six months of chemotherapy for my body to lose most of the muscle and endurance I had built up over 12 years.

I had expected to struggle physically while I went through treatment. And I even planned to give my body some time to recover once my treatement had ended. However, I was shocked when three months out of treatment, my energy had not bounced back according to the three month timeline my doctor had given me.

This process of rebuilding muscle, strength, and lung capacity, is anger producing and depressing at times. It is a constant comparison to the pre-cancer me. I am unsure if I will ever be the athlete I was before and I do not have time to train and workout like I did when I was in college. I am terrified that my body will never fully recover from cancer, and my athletic ability is the most glaring indication of that.

I have slowly learned to give myself a break, and relish in my small accomplishments. I still want more, but I am realizing I am in the midst of moving forward. Cancer temporarily took away certain self defining characteristics, but my drive and ambition to be better and push myself is one characteristic that has not been altered.

This post was originally published on EverythingChangesBook.com back in September. I was working with Kairol Rosenthal, author of Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20's and 30's.

Mission Statement

On January 21st, 2012 I will be holding the first Crush Cancer Softball Clinic.

I have three missions for my Crush Cancer Softball Clinic. One is to lessen the fear associated with cancer.

My second mission is to promote a healthy lifestyle, which I believe helped me immensely during my own battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at 22 years old.

The third mission is to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, through Light the Night, which is an event that I take part in every year. I believe that LLS presents every event in a positive and proactive light.

Cancer is scary, lonely, hopeless at times, and something that is so different for every individual that experiences this terrible disease. I want to lessen all the destructive parts of cancer, while promoting the things that may make somebody’s cancer journey less painful and scary.

I can do this through forming relationships with young girls in my community as a start, and showing them what a cancer survivor can look like, a 24 year old athlete. I want to break the cancer stereotypes that are presented through the media. My dream is to have the young girls I build relationships with be able to offer hope to somebody in the future.

Please stay tuned for other information about the first Crush Cancer Softball Clinic, to be hosted at Caldwell College in January.