As temperatures dropped and the first flurries threatened Boise early Dec. 13, Team in Training participants hit the Greenbelt in preparation for January marathons and half marathons in Arizona and Florida.

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training is a nationwide endurance sports training program in which participants raise funds for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma research and patient services. In exchange, they get training, support, lodging and airfare to the event of their choice.

Seventy-five percent of each dollar raised goes to find a cure or help patients and their families. About 380,000 people across the nation have helped raise millions since the program began 20 years ago.

Some of the participants Dec. 13 in Boise have loved ones who have survived or succumbed to the diseases. Others are themselves survivors, but they all have stories that have touched family and friends, and even those they hardly know.

Darra Franz, 36, spends most of her life helping others as a respiratory therapist, an air ambulance crew member, and a wife and mother of two.

When a 6-year-old family friend relapsed with leukemia in June, however, the Boise resident was at a loss. Then she discovered a way to contribute using her passion for running.

Franz joined Team In Training in August and plans to run a marathon in Phoenix this month.

Franz raised $3,700 from neighbors and through Highland Elementary students who donated money to have their heads shaved in support of their schoolmate made bald by chemotherapy.

She said even as the economy was tanking, people gave. The effort also brought the community and the school closer together - even residents without children - and inspired a positive school campaign: "Be the Change."

"I was so touched by how involved the kids got," Franz said. "It went so much further than I thought it would."

The January marathon will be Franz' second, but her first with the support of Team in Training.

"To have a base of people you can count on has been a really neat experience," Franz said. "They want nothing more than to help you. Having run Portland by myself (in October 2007), it was amazing the amount of support (Team in Training athletes) had, not only from runners, but on the sidelines. That makes such a huge difference when you're out there hour after hour."

Pat Stanger, 72, joined Team in Training after her husband was diagnosed with leukemia in 2007.

After completing her second half marathon on Oct. 19, she set a goal - raise $25,000 by walking five half marathons by age 75. Some of that money will come from the raffle of a queen-sized quilt made by her daughter in Casper, Wyo. (The quilt will be raffled off New Year's Eve at A Novel Adventure, 906 W. Main St., Boise. For tickets, call 344-8088 or visit www.anoveladventure.com.)

Stanger also mentors participants, helping them with fundraising and training support.

"This is what helped me get through this journey with Paul," Stanger said. "We aren't the only ones that suffer from cancer."

Some participants have lost loved ones, she said, "and they're out there running. You're working with all these people who understand. I don't need to go to a support group. They are my support group."

She said Paul and others are actually benefiting now from the money they raised for research through a drug treatment introduced in March.

"He's doing well. They don't have a cure, but they have a treatment," she said.

"It's a result of research that's being done because of the money we're raising."

Sandra Forester: 377-6464