Journey 4-A-Cure, a local organization, held its first festival at Bull Run Regional Park on Saturday, Oct. 8th. 

The festival's organizers, J4AC Director, Beth Collingwood and President of the Leigh Agency, hoped to raise $20,000 to help fund pediatric cancer research. Next year's goal is $100,000.

J4AC was created after Declan Carmical passed away after his couragous battle with brain cancer, before his first birthday. J4AC received a tremendous response from the local community since Declan is from Northern Virginia. The family's own contacts, good PR and Facebook helped recruit volunteers. "Social media was huge for us. Posting on Facebook helped us get a lot of volunteers. We reached out to a lot of universities and hospitals," Jodi Leigh said.

Beth Collingwood commented, "One of the big issues with pediatric cancer is that children are often misdiagnosed. By the time cancer is diagnosed, it's stage three or stage four."