Why We Climb - Seattle Firefighter Climb - 8 March 2026 - Columbia Center

What is the LLS Firefighter Stairclimb?
The LLS Firefighter Stairclimb is the world’s largest on-air stair climb competition, 
exclusively for career, volunteer, and retired firefighters. Participants commit to raising 
a minimum of $300 per person for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Renamed Blood 
Cancer United, and ascend the Columbia Center in Seattle—69 flights, 
1,356 steps, and 788 feet of vertical 
elevation gain—all while wearing full gear and on-air. 

This year marks our 35th anniversary, celebrating decades of grit, unity, and impact. 
Since 1991, the event has raised over $28 million for blood cancer research, 
patient support, and advocacy. 

When and where is the event?
Date: Sunday, March 8, 2026
Location: Columbia Center, 701 5th Ave, Seattle, WA
Doors Open: 6:00 AM PT
Opening Ceremonies: 7:30 AM PT
First Battalion Starts: 8:00 AM PT
Final Battalion Starts: TBD

 

Why We Climb

In honor of our patients, survivors, and those we have lost...
 Here are but two examples of why Firelighters climb and fund raise for 
those of us with Blood Cancers.

Alan Lynn 

  

 

 

 

 

I was 51 years old when I went to urgent care on Monday April 5, 2021, in my hometown 
for a sore throat.  I had just retired from law enforcement five days prior, on March 31, 2021, 
and had been feeling sick since I retired.  My wife at the time was undergoing ankle surgery 
on that Monday, and to ensure I didn’t have COVID, I went to urgent care to protect her.  
Little did I know what would unfold from that visit and how my life would be forever changed.

I was initially seen at urgent care but sent to the emergency room at the local hospital and 
would spend the majority of my day undergoing tests and not knowing what was occurring.  
Around 5:00pm the doctor came into my room and advised me that I had leukemia and 
that I would be transported by ambulance to Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), 
which was an hour and half away.  I was in complete disbelief and would be for the next 
few days.

Once at OHSU, I underwent multiple tests, to include a bone marrow biopsy and it 
was confirmed that I had Acute Myeloid Leukemia with a FLT-3 mutation.  I could no l
onger deny what was happening. I underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy and 
extended stays at OHSU over the next several months.  To include an Allogeneic Bone 
Marrow Transplant, with the ORCA study protocol, on June 23, 2021.  I was blessed that 
my two sisters, were both 100% matches for the transplant and my sister Diane Draper 
was my donor.

I won’t say that 2021, or the years following have been easy, or didn’t present many 
challenges.  There was a lot of uncertainty, suffering, and challenges throughout it and to 
this day.  However, despite all of that, I feel blessed and thankful for going through what 
I did and learned what is important in life.

I learned the importance of community and family.  This is not a battle you can fight 
on your own.  My children and sisters, as well as their families were there every 
step of the way.  As were my former co-workers and my amazing medical team from OHSU, 
led by Dr. Arpita Gandhi.  All of them played a crucial role in me becoming a better 
version of myself.  Because of this, my bond with my children and sisters has never 
been stronger.

Living this experience, forced me to look deep inside of myself and learn what was 
truly important.  Living to earn a paycheck, or build status, is not what life is. Living to 
experience every second of your life fully and to truly find love for yourself and those 
around you, is true happiness. Because of my experience I have found that.  With that 
being said, it is my responsibility and privilege to be an example of that and to show 
others how to move forward with resiliency, courage and love.

 

Molly Quillin 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on October 7, 2024, in the fall of my third 
and final year of law school. 
I remained enrolled in my classes, thanks to the support of 
the University of Oregon School of Law, my friends, and my family. I began chemotherapy 
in November 2024 and concluded chemo in February 2025. 
I took my final exams 
with a full chemo brain, a little extra time, and a prayer. I passed all of my classes that fall. 
I continued to stay in school the following semester and began radiation in April 2025. 
This treatment timeline does not and cannot fully describe the hard days I spent processing 
a hefty diagnosis, the love I felt from my family and friends near and far, the delicious 
(and now sickening) peppermints the nurses at the Willamette Valley Cancer Institute
 gave me so I did not taste the nausea medicine, the kindness from my fellow patients 
and nurses (and now friends) at WVCI, the difficulty of finishing law school while beating 
cancer, and every emotion in between. 
I cannot fully express into words my gratitude 
for the love, support, time, and effort it took my friends, family, school, and WVCI to 
hold me throughout the course of this long, winding road. Mary Oliver wrote, “
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” and I will tell you this – 
I intend to live fuller, laugh longer, love louder, and breathe deeper in my cancer-free life. 
Thank you for this immense honor. It is one I take seriously and cherish deeply.

Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres of California!!

Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns

Tribe, which was forcibly removed from its lands near Lake Tahoe, used $5.5m grant and private donations for purchase...

 

 The Washoe Tribe has purchased more than 10,000 acres of land near Lake Tahoe for conservation in one of the largest tribal land returns in California history.

The sprawling property, located 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada, stretches from the Great Basin through the Sierra Nevada and encompasses sagebrush scrublands and juniper and pine forests.

It marks a key development for the tribe, which was forcibly removed from its lands and saw its individual allotments stolen, said the tribe’s chairperson, Serrell Smokey.

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“We were told we could no longer use the land for resources or ceremony. Since that time, the land has been calling us back, and we are answering that call,” Smokey said in a statement. “This land purchase is good medicine for our people. This is a small start to healing from generations of historical trauma, and the benefits will go on for many generations to come.”

Today there are about 1,500 enrolled members of the Washoe, largely split between California and Nevada.

The tribe has named the property, previously known as Loyalton Ranch, the Wélmelti Preserve. It worked with the Northern Sierra Partnership and the Feather River Land Trust on the project and ultimately used a $5.5m grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board as well as private donations to support the purchase, according to a statement.

The property cost $6m, and additional funding was set aside for planning and assessments and to start an endowment to support the tribe in its long-term management of the land.

The sale of the property is another milestone for the Land Back movement in California, which has seen tens of thousands of acres returned to tribes that occupied the land for millennia before European colonization. Last June, the Yurok Tribe acquired about 47,000 acres near the lower Klamath River as part of the largest such deal in state history. The Tule River Tribe regained 14,672 acres of its ancestral land in Tulare county in 2024.

The Washoe’s recent acquisition will triple the tribe’s current land holdings, Smokey said on Wednesday. It will also support the return of traditional cultural practices and foster greater connection with the land among youth. “Now we actually have something to call ours,” he said.

The preserve is an important habitat for wildlife, including pronghorn, mule deer and gray wolves, and has springs and key water resources. The tribe is focused on conservation, but will also use the land to house some tribal members. Parts of the property have been used as a dumping ground, Smokey said, and clean-up is needed.

The tribe hopes to purchase other properties across its homelands in the Sierra Nevada.

“It is exciting to know that the Washoe people will be caring for this spectacular landscape going forward,” Lucy Blake, the president of the Northern Sierra Partnership, said in a statement.