MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 18, 2016) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. will once again be part of the “Catwalk for a Cause” event with the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation on May 18, helping assist families in taking on pediatric cancer. The seventh annual event will be held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Merinos in Mooresville, with a “Sip & Shop” session running through 11 p.m. Earnhardt Jr., along with fiancée Amy Reimann and The Dale Jr. Foundation (TDJF) are supporting the event through the purchase of a table for the benefit.

It’s been a yearly mission for Earnhardt Jr. and TDJF, and a passionate, enervating experience. This one, however, will be a little tougher to deal with than the last one, for Earnhardt Jr. and many others.

Last year, Earnhardt Jr. walked down the catwalk with 10-year-old Elijah Aschbrenner, who had received a radiation treatment the day before to combat epithelioid sarcoma and could hardly make it through rehearsal without leaning on his mother for support. On the night of the show, however, he rocked the house when he struck a pose on the catwalk, both hands up with peace signs flying. The crowd went wild.

Several months later, Aschbrenner died from the disease, as did two other participants and one who did not have the opportunity to take the walk.

Earnhardt Jr. knew that Aschbrenner was struggling physically at rehearsal, but when he hit the catwalk on show night, it was a completely different effect.

“Visibly being able to see his injuries and what the sickness had done to his body, I was amazed at how tough he was to keep fighting,” Earnhardt told ESPN’s Bob Pockrass. “We had spent some time with him away from the Catwalk and he just worked hard and I never saw him feel sorry for himself. ... I was amazed at how he made it as far as he did because he certainly was taking a beating and his body was showing it.

“But his disposition, man, he was always positive.”

Walking down the catwalk and hitting his pose, Aschbrenner drank in the cheers and applause. It was a high-water mark in the midst of a terrible, terrible struggle.

"When they do get out there, the appreciation and the applause that they get from the crowd spurs these spontaneous things they do," Earnhardt told Pockrass. "The thing is the [other] people that are walking are backstage, they know that anything can happen at any moment with these kids so we're all clamoring around the monitors and trying to watch to see what they're going to do.

"They all do something fun. They come out of their shell."

To know that the young man who stood so strong a year ago is gone, Earnhardt Jr. said, is tough to deal with, but it will be dealt with by making them the stars of the show.

"There will be some tears but nobody is going to be hanging their head," Earnhardt told Pockrass. "It will be a joyous and energetic evening. All those kids are ill and all those kids are going through stuff, and the whole thing about that event is to raise their spirits and make them feel special."

The event was started in 2010 by Sherry Pollex, girlfriend of Martin Truex Jr. It was her idea, and Truex signed on immediately to help raise funds for pediatric cancer. A friend’s daughter, Soliel, had been diagnosed with a rare stage II Neuroblastoma at the age of three. Both Pollex and Truex Jr. saw first-hand the struggles a family goes through emotionally and financially when a child is battling cancer, and Catwalk for a Cause was born. The inaugural event hosted 50 guests and raised $10,000, which led to a Special Needs Fund established at Levine Children’s Hospital for financially deserving families. 

The instances are numerous each year for families already struggling with the high costs of cancer treatment when, unexpectedly, something non-medically related goes wrong and there is no extra money. No one should have to make a choice on replacing a home water heater or cover the cost of a treatment for their child fighting for his or her life.

Less than four percent of the national cancer research budget is allocated to childhood cancer research, and Pollex knows first-hand how insidious the disease can be: she is in remission after a long bout with ovarian cancer.