Danny’s Walk to Raise Funds for New Charity in May

By JOHN P. EVANS III

Entering its sixth year, Danny’s Walk will be raising money for a new charity this year, the Horizon Day Camps.
The charity is based in Baltimore, Maryland, but sponsors free summer day camps and year-round programming for children throughout the state, including the Eastern Shore.

Horizon Camp is a member of the Sunrise Day Camps Association, whose mission is to help restore the joys of childhood to participant children.

“The camp helps children with pediatric cancer. They contacted us and asked if we would consider helping raise money for their program and made a presentation to us,” said Ginger Lockhart, mother of Danny Lockhart, who began sponsoring the Danny’s Walk while a high school student at North Caroline High School. Now having graduated from high school and Chaespeake College, Danny continues sponsoring the walk every year.

Horizon’s mission statement promotes itself as a place “where children with cancer find a new beginning every day…”
Horizon Day Camp is a full-summer day camp for children with cancer and their siblings, ages 3 1⁄2–16, who are in active or follow-up treatment for cancer. Unlike most oncology sleep-away camps that are offered for only 1-2 weeks each summer, Horizon Day Camp allows children to attend camp for as little as one day or the entire summer. This allows children who are in active treatment to continue with their home doctors and enjoy the comfort of sleeping in their own beds each night.

Recognizing the extraordinary financial demands that a child’s chronic illness can have on a family, Horizon Day Camps and Year-Round Programs are always offered free of charge.

Danny’s Walk was founded in 2012 by Danny Lockhart, who wanted to thank Make-A-Wish for granting him his wish of being a Deejay-for-A-Day, During the first five years, Danny’s Walk, averaged raising $5,000 a year.

This year’s “Danny’s Walk” will be held on Sunday, May 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Martin Sutton Park in Ridgely.

“We had no bad feelings about it, or with Make A Wish, we just decided to sponsor a different cause this year,” said Danny Lockhart.“Cancer seems to hit everywhere and you get a lot of cases of pediatric cancer on the Eastern Shore,” said Danny. “We wanted to help to raise awareness of pediatric cancer on the Eastern Shore and the work of Horizon Day camps.

This year, as in the past two years, the walk will be held at Martin Sutton Park in Ridgely and will feature vendors, refreshments, live music and activities for young and old alike. Money is raised from pledges collected by the walkers and fees paid for booths by the organizations. Among the bands and musicians performing will be the duo of Rivers and Rhodes from Ridgely, the band Silhouette Song from Ridgley and Dustin Roe, a former member of the band Apex Revolution which had played at Danny’s Walk previously.

Also on hand will be former Major League baseball player Larry Bigbie, who played for the Delmarva Shorebirds and Baltimore Orioles and now lives in Centreville.

“We are so pleased to partner with Danny’s Walk and Danny Lockhart,” said Mark McElrath, Vice President for Development for Horizon Day Camp. “Danny’s family and a committee of volunteers are helping to secure monetary donations and in-kind support from companies, merchants and leaders within the Ridgely and Eastern Shore community, all of which will aid our efforts to provide these children with a normative childhood experience.”

McElrath said he first heard of Danny’s Walk in 2012 when he was a fundraiser for the Eastern Shore chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Information concerning Horizon Day Camp may be found at www.horizondaycamp.org or at gingerlockhart@comcast.net. To make online donations, contact www.sunrise-walks.org/horizon.