Placer Land Trust’s Land Manager, Justin Wages, took the court at the January 16th Sacramento Kings game to be honored by Kaiser Permanente on Cancer Awareness Night.
Kaiser partnered with the Sacramento Kings to highlight four “Care Stories” – inspirational stories in the fight against cancer by individuals and their supporters and caregivers, told by Kaiser members in their own words. It was a great night to celebrate because the Kings game was one day before the third anniversary of Wages’ last surgery to remove part of his lung, making him cancer free.
Read more on Justin’s amazing story here.
Wages received 10 tickets to the Kings game, and was invited to a pre-game “Chalk Talk” with Dr. Dinesh Kotak, one of Wages’ oncologists, and Wages’ entire Kaiser medical care team. The Chalk Talk included a visit from the Kings dancers and Assistant Coach Corliss Williamson. Kaiser showed a short video of Wages and his care team, and the same video was shown after the first quarter of the game as the group paraded on court to thunderous applause.
Today, Wages is healthy and he’s still working hard. The support he received from Placer Land Trust staff and friends helped him realize the importance of protecting natural spaces, because nature brings people together.
“We all love the land, but Placer Land Trust preserves it for people.” Justin says, “Along the way, it turned out to be the people at Placer Land Trust who helped give me a reason to live.”
For more information about Justin’s work: http://www.placerlandtrust.org/dt_team/justin-wages/
