Up North: Disc golfers make a difference in the Northland

While the golf courses may be closing this time of year, the weather however didn’t stop disc golfers from heading to a Throw Pink event over the weekend.

Throw Pink is a nationwide non-profit organization that holds disc golf tournaments, events and fundraisers across the country. The organization this past weekend hosted an event at Olcott Park in Virginia.

“This year, up in the Northland, we are holding an event for Xena. We’re raising money to help her through her cancer treatments. We’re also spreading the love of disc golf around to the Iron Range,” said event director Ryan Bennet.

The Iron Range boast over 20 disc golf locations, with this event celebrating and raising funds for Xena Hannine, a 12-year-old from Cook, Minnesota, who in 2020 was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.

“It’s not very bad like most people, but I’m doing well. I hope that people in my situation will have people that will help them with that kind of journey and that will be there for them because this is really nice,” claimed Xena.

Xena not only plays disc golf, she also is an avid martial artist. Using a variety of different activities to still stay happy, healthy and active. All while continuing the use of chemotherapy drugs till this coming summer.

“We’ve tried to maintain a really good attitude about living every day and enjoying it. So we don’t hold back on doing things like this. We just know that it takes a couple of days to kind of recover from it afterwards,” added Xena’s mother Jessica.

Still, having fun and making a difference in women’s health initiatives is what the event was all about.

“I think it’s very fun to just, throw a Frisbee everywhere,” concluded Xena.