Hope and laughter were the theme of the night at All the World’s A Stage, a variety talent show raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer and benefitting the Sunrise Fund.

Selling out at 200 tickets, the first event ever organized by the Stony Brook Student Health Initiative to Network and Educate (SB-SHINE) featured almost two dozen acts and raised more than $1000 before outside donations, all of which will go directly to the programs put on by the Sunshine Fund.

Rosemary Mahan, Pediatric Oncology/Hematology Nurse Practitioner at Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital and representative of the Fund, facilitates and monitors the treatment of child patients throughout all aspects of their care.

Many programs offered to families are supported and financed by the Sunrise Fund, which seeks to “turn fear into hope.”

“One of the most important things to let families know is that it’s not just the child who we’re caring for, and it’s not just the disease that we’re trying to treat,” Mahan said. “We’re trying to manage the child’s illness and work together with the children and the families to help them get through this very difficult time.”

For the parents of children with cancer, one of the most important things they can do for their child during their treatment is, as father Lance Macioce said, “trying to keep their life as normal as possible. There’s a lot of events that they can’t do at certain times, especially when her numbers drop down, so we always find alternatives to keep them occupied.”

His daughter, Taylor, 6, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in April 2011. With ALL, malignant, immature white blood cells are overproduced and crowd out normal blood cells in bone marrow, spreading to other organs. According to the National Cancer Institute, ALL is the most common form of cancer among children.

Now in remission following treatment, Taylor and her sister Sydney, 8, performed as a singing and dancing duo in All the World’s A Stage, winning over the hearts of the entire crowd.

“I feel like the crowd was very responsive,” said Ramon Reinoso, a junior Cinema and Cultural Studies and health sciences major who was hosting the show. “They were very interactive with us, jumping on stage and getting involved in the raffle, clapping when they were supposed to. They gave the kids a great, great reception.”

Prizes were handed out by children representing the Sunrise Fund, awarding first place to Stony Brook Live, a cooperative group that performs ska, rock, jazz and pop songs at campus events.

Activities like All the World’s A Stage serves an important purpose to children and families fighting cancer, along with holiday parties, talent shows, art galleries and fashion shows put on by the Sunrise Fund.

“We look at opportunities to celebrate life,” said Mahan.

JRN 380 has been by far one of the most demanding courses I have taken at Stony Brook. I’m glad I forced myself to follow through after my struggles in JRN 320 and I feel that my multimedia skills have definitely improved because of it.

Before this semester, my photography skills were passable at best. Looking back at the past few months and the numerous galleries I’ve done and the projects that required photo  I can see a significant improvement in my understanding of all basic camera functions. I no longer struggle with the concepts of ISO and aperture and my photography is so much better for it. Thanks to the harsh criticisms of Professor Ahmad and my peers I know what is expected in a high quality photo and I know what a really great picture looks like.

My biggest problem with this class is that I almost felt like I’d been thrown into the deep end when it came to DSLR video. While technically I understood how it worked, when I went to cover my cover my first ever event with video I was overwhelmed. I think a better way to do this would have been to replace one of the photo galleries with an event coverage video, so that we could have had a chance to focus solely on video for our first go, and then had the multimedia event project after. It would have been easier if I felt more comfortable with video to better manage my time when it came to alternating between photo and video.

Another major challenge I faced with this course was my struggles with money. As a student who contributes to my own tuition, it was incredibly hard for me to scrape together the cash to get to where Professor Ahmad wanted me to be to cover good stories. While yes, New York City is right in our backyard it’s $22 to get there, and buying a car is even more costly. Enterprise stories, such as the final project, are nearly impossible unless you just tag along with someone doing a story in the same place. There should be less of an emphasis on students covering off-campus events as I was made to feel like I was under-achieving when I could only get to certain locations for stories.

To future JRN 380 students I would suggest they really take Professor Ahmad up on all of his extra credit opportunities. When you get the opportunity to go out into the field with your professor and peers you will learn a lot and produce better and better work. Also, avoid taking any other 300 level classes at the same time.