Play for 80 kids fighting cancer—The 2024 Play Defeats Cancer Tour

September 23, 2024

Featured

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month! Here at Roc Solid Foundation, we help make play defeat cancer for kids and families all over the country who are battling pediatric cancer. We build backyard playsets so that kids have a safe, germ-free place to play, forget about cancer, and just be kids. This is what we mean when we say “play defeats cancer,” because when kids are playing, they aren’t thinking about cancer.

A volunteer and Build Leader working hard to built a playset during the Play Defeats Cancer Tour! — **A volunteer and Build Leader hard at work building a playset during the Play Defeats Cancer Tour!**

This year, to raise awareness for childhood cancer and our playset program, we took play on tour—the third annual Play Defeats Cancer Tour. We had 10 teams of 3-5 Build Leaders each who traveled to 10 cities up and down the East Coast of the United States to build playsets for kids fighting cancer over the course of three days.

Roc Solid Staff and Build Leaders in the airport on the way to the Play Defeats Cancer Tour! — **Roc Solid staff and Build Leaders en route to kick off the 2024 Play Defeats Cancer Tour!**

Our teams hit the road to Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville (FL), Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron (OH), Nashville and Memphis (TN), Louisville and Lexington (KY) Edison and Carteret (NJ) Boston, MA and Birmingham, AL to prepare for three days of playset building.

PDC team Tennesse during the Play Defeats Cancer Tour!

We also partnered with dozens of sponsor groups all around the country to provide an additional 50 playhouses to kids fighting cancer. At the end of the tour, 80 families fighting childhood cancer had a safe place for their kiddos to play and the feeling of community from the strangers who showed up in their yards to build hope for them.

Pediatric cancer warrior with her new Roc Solid Playhouse! — **This brave pediatric cancer warrior beams with joy after receiving a new playhouse!**

On September 10, 2024, the volunteer Build Leader and Roc Solid staff on the Play Defeats Cancer Tour build teams traveled to prepare for their upcoming playset builds. That week the teams built playsets for three families each on September 11, 12 and 13. Each day, the Roc Solid build teams met with sponsor groups at the families’ homes to build their playsets.

**All hands on deck for this playset build**!

Volunteers from Amazon, Proctor and Gamble, Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, Tampa International Forest Products, Seaboard International Forest Products, Birmingham International Forest Products, Shady Rays and Manganaro gathered in backyards up and down the East Coast each day of the tour and built playsets from the ground up.

Amazon volunteer team in front of the playset they built during the Play Defeats Cancer Tour! — **The Amazon volunteer team building hope and changing the world one family at a time!**

Back at the Roc Solid Foundation world headquarters in Chesapeake, VA, the home team worked hard to help our nationwide community feel like everyone was a part of the Play Defeats Cancer Tour by sharing photos and stories from the build projects. Through the support of countless Roc Solid supporters all around the country, we were able to raise $25,000 to provide playhouses for 25 kids fighting cancer over those three days during the Play Defeats Cancer Tour.

Through our corporate partners and tour sponsors, we were able to raise a total of over $320,000 as a part of the Play Defeats Cancer Tour. We are thrilled to complete another incredibly impactful campaign!