Sunday June 8, 2025 was the first ever Prouty event in Manchester. The Prouty is the largest fundraising event in Northern New England, run by Dartmouth Hitchcock. This is the 44th anniversary of the Prouty, but the first year they brought the family-friendly event to Southern New Hampshire.
The Prouty was created to raise awareness for people who have or had cancer, as well as money to provide services and research for them. The Southern New Hampshire event was a walk, but in other Prouty events people can bike, row, golf, walk, or cycle to raise funds.
I participated in the Prouty Walk and it was an exciting and empowering experience. When participants sign up for the Prouty, they have the opportunity to raise funds for Dartmouth Cancer Center, so it can continue saving people’s lives and doing research centered around cancer. Participants have their own personal funding page where they can reach out to their community, family, and friends to request donations. They are also able to customize their page, sharing their experience with cancer.
This year, the Prouty continued to be supported by the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation Match where every donation was matched, doubling the funds raised! The Jack and Dorothy Byrne foundation was created by Jack and Dorothy Byrne who lived in of the Upper Valley in 1999. They have helped raise millions of dollars since that time.
Prouty to support Manchester and Nashua centers
Participating in the Prouty helps raise awareness for the Dartmouth Cancer Center. Donations are used to support researchers and scientists who work to discover new and innovative ways to find, prevent, treat, and hopefully completely get rid of cancer. All of the funds raised for Southern NH’s Prouty will go directly to Southern NH Dartmouth Cancer Center Clinics, to support families impacted by cancer. This might include access to Dartmouth’s Healing Harvest food pantry or receiving gas cards to help with the cost of getting to appointments. It also helps patients have access support services like massages, art therapy, and music, free of charge to help reduce stress surrounding cancer treatment.
The Prouty event itself was so fun! The afternoon was sunny, bright, and warm, and there were a bunch of fun activities for kids like drawing with chalk, bubble blowing, face painting, and hula hooping! There was also music, snacks, and pizza and cookies after the walk. If you were able to raise certain amounts of money, you received a tote bag and other fun goodies like t-shirts, bracelets, and hats.
Before the walk, Dartmouth Hitchcock staff and volunteers spoke, explaining how this event was centered around love, hope, and appreciation by bringing awareness to people with cancer being treated at Dartmouth. The Prouty is also centered around community and has grown into an extremely passionate one.
Everyone has their own reason for participating and that reason is usually because people believe in Dartmouth saving lives and being part of a community the life saving work Dartmouth Hitchcock does. Steve Leach, a director at the hospital, thanked everyone for bringing the Prouty’s magic alive and making the event grow every year.
Medical Director Christi Hayes said a few words as well, thanking the organizers and volunteers and said there was “no mountain high enough and no river wide enough” because the whole team at Dartmouth are compassionate people who do an amazing job, striving to do as much as they can for their patients.
Before the walk took off, everybody raised their yellow ribbons which had people’s hopes and reasons for participating in the Prouty walk written on them. This included the names of loved ones that died or people who survived cancer.
It took place on a trail that was situated behind Manchester’s Dartmouth Cancer Center and was about one mile. Throughout the trail, there were signs with the names and stories of Prouty Heroes, doctors, researchers, and scientists who made a profound impact in cancer research as well as people who survived cancer and wanted to share their story or people who had family members with cancer.
The participants in this first time Prouty event raised $65,000. The proceeds will go directly to the Nashua and Manchester Dartmouth cancer clinics, where they will be used for services for patients and their families and research for treatments and cures to help people live longer and happier lives. This July Manchester’s Dartmouth cancer clinic will finish expanding and adding on a radiation oncology unit to better help people who require this treatment, closer to home.
Overall, the walk was fun, the event was filled with people who care about their community and succeeded in raising money for an important cause.
Author Talia Harmon is a high school student in Manchester.
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