![<B>Corbin Leonard,</B> 12, and <B>Diana Reidy</B>, 5, were crowned Boy and Girl of the Year by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. <!--IPTC: [CUT1]Corbin Leonard, 12, and Diana Reidy, 5, were crowned Boy and Girl of the Year by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Photo by Joanne Davidson, The Denver Post-->](/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20100519__20100521_D16_FE21DAVIDSONp1.jpg?w=468 "20100519__20100521_D16_FE21DAVIDSON~p1.JPG")
When Mike Erickson and his fiancee, Ashley Burnham, moved to Colorado in April 2009, they thought they had the world on a string.
They were young, healthy and caught up in the excitement of planning their wedding.
Three weeks after settling into their new home, things took an abrupt turn. Mike received the devastating news that he had stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The next six months were tough as Mike, who is in his 20s, faced chemotherapy and radiation. They kept their spirits up by writing a blog and becoming involved with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The wedding went off as scheduled in December, shortly after Mike had his last radiation treatment and was declared to be in remission.
So when organizers of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man and Woman of the Year called, Ashley readily agreed to be a candidate.
When the 10-week campaign ended, Ashley had raised $61,236 — enough for her to be crowned 2010 Woman of the Year at a Roaring Twenties-themed gala held last Friday at Denver Athletic Club. Kien Arnold, co-owner of Newberry Brothers Greenhouse & Florist, was named Man of the Year in exchange for the $45,856 that he raised in honor of a family friend who has leukemia.
“I am so proud of him,” said mom Paula Newberry Arnold. “The race was neck-in-neck right up to the end, and he really came through.”
Other candidates were Susan Bradley, Kathy Lee, Maya Leon-Meis, Cassandra Lillard, David Tolbert and Deverick Wilder.Jim and Shery Galbreath chaired the event with their daughter, Emma, and took great pleasure in announcing both a record crowd (350) and a net income of $200,400.
They also introduced that 12-year-old Corbin Leonard of Broomfield and 5-year-old Diana Reidy of Denver would represent the chapter as Boy and Girl of the Year. He is in remission following a 2006 diagnosis of t-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, and she finished treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in November.
Diana is the granddaughter of University of Colorado president Bruce Benson.Saturday’s fun events.
In order to complete Scavenger Nouveau, teams of Ballet Nouveau supporters need to offer photographic proof that they’ve performed some wild and crazy tasks at 11 urban locales (think yoga poses on the Millennium Bridge or dancing “The Locomotion” at Union Station) before meeting up at Billy Ward’s Below Bar in Larimer Square. Instruction sheets are distributed at a 6 p.m. cocktail reception in the Magnolia Hotel Ballroom, then everyone scampers from venue to venue on foot, by limousine or pedicab. Sign up by visiting … A somewhat tamer event that night is the Girls, Inc. Prom that starts at 8 p.m. in RocHenge Center at Coors Field. Vintage attire is encouraged; there’ll be desserts, dancing and a cash bar. Register at .
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
