Heather Rucker takes a picture with family, friends and Smith County commissioners to commemorate September being named “Childhood Cancer Awareness Month” in Smith County.

The month of September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, but people such as Heather Rucker, founder of the Gold Network of East Texas, have found that few people know this.

To help spread awareness, the Smith County commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday to name September “Childhood Cancer Awareness Month” in Smith County.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips read the resolution, informing people Rucker’s child was diagnosed with cancer July 23, 2014. After learning of this diagnosis, she found a passion in bringing awareness to childhood cancer.

Rucker and two other mothers began the Gold Network of East Texas, which has grown from nine families to almost 80 in six years.

The network is dedicated to providing financial and emotional support to those families impacted by childhood cancer.

Before her own child was diagnosed with cancer, Rucker said she knew little about the topic and even tended to avoid it because it made her uncomfortable. She added after the diagnosis, there was no running from the reality of childhood cancer.

After her child’s diagnosis, she began dreaming of ways to support people going through the same thing.

“I knew that Tyler is such a philanthropic community and I knew that I just wanted to do something,” Rucker said. “We all know pink for October, it’s awesome the whole world has taken that in and made that a cause that’s important, but we miss September completely.”

Raising awareness so that people know that childhood cancer is a real problem is the biggest thing, she said. After all, people “can’t care unless they know.”

Supporting awareness of childhood cancer can be as simple as someone painting their fingernails gold or even wearing a gold piece of clothing to represent the ribbon color for childhood cancer, she said.

Other ways Rucker is raising awareness is through Go Gold Tyler holding an event in downtown Tyler to honor and tell people that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The event will be held today from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Another big thing is the Tyler Gold Run held each year in September. This year, the event will be on Sept. 18.

Since the organizations started in 2015, the group has been able to donate around $200,000 to local families and to pediatric cancer research.

To learn more about the Gold Network of East Texas, visit the website goldnetworkoet.com