Blue Mountain Health System's Gnaden Huetten and Palmerton campuses made 609 passes to help raise $1 million for cancer research.

On Wednesday, the two hospitals participated in "The Baton Pass," a nationwide challenge started on Good Morning America in March by Siemens as a way to raise funds for Stand Up To Cancer, a campaign created by Entertainment Industry Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports cancer research designed to get new therapies to patients quickly.In the challenge, Siemens promised to donate $1 for every pass of the baton, capping it at $1 million. To date, over 900,000 passes have been completed. The Baton Pass ends Sept. 5.Lisa Johnson, vice president of public relations and marketing at Blue Mountain Health System, said there were 30 stops along the route through the two hospitals and its nursing home with dozens of departments participating."We found out about the project through our partnership with Siemens," she said, adding that the health system partners with Siemens for its electronic medical record, medication administration check program as well as telephone help desk services."We asked if we could participate, and Siemens worked to make sure it happened. Blue Mountain Health System was one of the only hospitals in the region that participated in The Baton Pass project," she said. "We wanted to participate because helping people is what we do."The Baton Pass began weaving its way through the halls at Gnaden Huetten at 9 a.m., traveled to Palmerton at 1:30 p.m., and ended at The Summit Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lehighton at 4 p.m."The staff loved it," Johnson said. "We even had some patients ask about it and wanted to be a part of the excitement."It's a fun, friendly and fantastic project, and we can only hope to one day win the battle against cancer."The Baton Pass has traversed the country and Canada since the challenge began five months ago in New York City's Times Square.In addition to Blue Mountain Health System, other stops included the Case Western Reserve University's National Center for Regenerative Medicine Stem Cell Research Conference and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, both in Cleveland, Ohio; the set of ABC's hit television show "Castle"; The Association of Medical Imaging Management annual meeting in Washington, D.C.; SickKids Hospital in Toronto; The American Association of Clinical Chemistry's annual meeting in Chicago; and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, to name a few.On Sept. 2, the baton will again be in Pennsylvania as it makes its way through Penn State Hershey Medical Center.The campaign will end on Sept. 5 in Hollywood during a special telecast broadcast at 8 p.m. on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.During the telecast, celebrities will be calling, Tweeting or Facebooking people who register at werecallingyou.org to thank them for their support of the campaign.For more information on The Baton Pass or to make a virtual pass, visit

www.facebook.com/TheBatonPass.