The Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska, will be held in June, and Barbara Clark, program coordinator for the College of Business, will be running to raise money for the Leukemia Society of America.

“Besides training for the marathon, I am trying to solicit funds to help raise money for the Leukemia Society,” she said. “I have talked to relatives and colleagues, and I am getting a great response.”

Clark is using letters to solicit tax-deductible donations and is considering other methods of fund raising such as business sponsorships.

She said in order to participate, she must raise at least $4,000 in pledges.

“I am trying for $8,000, and I am about 32 percent of the way towards my goal,” she said.

More than 20,000 runners, walkers and cyclists participated in the major marathons around the world last year on behalf of the Leukemia Society of America.

Team in Training, a group within the society that helps runners train for marathons and pairs runners with leukemia patients, has raised millions of dollars for finding cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, according to the Leukemia Society of America Web site.

Clark has been matched with Douglas Fuller of Urbandale, who currently is in remission.

“It helps the patient to know a person who is working on this for them and the runner to know there are live human beings who are suffering this and going through this; it’s not just an abstract disease,” she said.

Clark said she got involved in a marathon to help someone in need.

“My husband did it in the fall of 1997 when the Mid-America Chapter went up to Toronto. I was supportive of his endeavor, but I never thought this is something that I would do,” she said.

“I decided to go for it and help raise money at the same time,” Clark said.

Clark said she supports the society because of personal experiences with leukemia.

“My uncle passed away from leukemia before I was born,” she said. “Whenever you lose somebody in your family, even if you’ve never met them, it does affect you.”

She also had a childhood friend who lost a brother to leukemia.

“It really shook her up, and I remember the effects it had on everyone that knew the family,” Clark said.

“It is amazing how easily you can be touched by leukemia,” she said.

For more information about the event or to make donations, contact Clark at (515) 388-4550.