Runners circling the ponds at Al Lopez Park on Saturday morning weren't just chasing a finish line lined with cupcakes — they were celebrating a 6-year-old who has spent most of his life fighting cancer. Nate Thrope, diagnosed with a germ cell tumor at just 19 months old, was named the honorary Cupcake Kid for the fourth annual Cupcake Crawl 5K and Cup1K Dash, a title that comes with a very literal birthday party thrown by strangers who showed up to run in his honor.
Nate underwent four separate rounds of treatment over four years, according to FOX 13 News, which first reported on the West Tampa race and interviewed Nate's mother, Kim Thrope, his sister Kate Thrope, and organizers about his journey. Kim Thrope told the station her son has been in remission while remaining on long-term maintenance care. Nate has since started kindergarten, a milestone the station notes his family did not take for granted after years of hospital visits.
At the finish line, race participants sang happy birthday to Nate and threw him a party, marking the emotional centerpiece of an event that has grown considerably since its first year. The inaugural Cupcake Crawl hosted just 97 people; organizers have not yet released the total funds raised from this year's race, nor have they announced dates or registration details for a 2027 event, per the station's report.
A Tumor Diagnosed Before His First Words
Germ cell tumors like the one Nate battled tend to strike children at two distinct points in life — before age 5 or during adolescence between 15 and 19 — according to research published in PubMed Central. Nate's diagnosis at 19 months old falls squarely into that earlier window. The same body of clinical data, drawn from the National Cancer Institute, shows that long-term disease-free survival rates for pediatric extracranial germ cell tumors in children under 11 can reach as high as 99 percent under standard risk-guided treatment protocols, offering context for why Nate's continued monitoring, even in remission, remains part of his care.
Cupcakes for a Cause: How the Race Works
The Cupcake Crawl doubles as the signature fundraiser for Celebrate Birthdays, a local nonprofit that provides birthday parties for foster children, kids in the hospital, and youth in need. Every registered 5K and Cup1K Dash runner this year received a cupcake voucher redeemable at Sugar Darlings Cupcakes, along with a custom race medal and bib, according to event details posted on RunSignup. Runners also picked up cupcakes waiting for them at the finish line, and early packet pick-up was held at Fit2Run in Tampa's International Plaza. Each year, organizers select one child to serve as the face of the race, and Nate was this year's pick.
The 132-acre venue hosting the race, Al Lopez Park, features a 1.2-mile paved interior loop trail winding around freshwater ponds. The park was renamed in 1992 to honor Al López, Tampa's first Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, according to the City of Tampa.
From Two Nurses to a Tri-County Nonprofit
Celebrate Birthdays was co-founded in 2019 by Belinda Leto, now the organization's executive director, and Celina Saunders, two local nurses who started the charity after delivering Angel Tree Christmas gifts and discovering that many area foster youth had never had a birthday celebrated at all. The idea took root, per The Laker/Lutz News, after a local grandmother tearfully told them she could not afford a birthday cake for her grandson. What began as a small local effort has since expanded into Pasco and Pinellas counties, where the organization now reaches 13 foster and group homes with monthly celebrations and themed Birthday in a Box packages containing 16 party essentials across roughly 20 custom themes.
The nonprofit's growth has attracted significant outside support. In October 2023, the DeBartolo Family Foundation awarded Celebrate Birthdays a $25,000 Spirit of Humanity Award, recognizing that the group had provided birthday celebrations and supplies to 6,000 children across Tampa Bay since its founding. Roughly two years later, in November 2025, the charity landed national attention when it was featured on NBC's TODAY Show and received a $25,000 grant from Amazon Prime, presented by contributor Elizabeth Mayhew during a holiday broadcast segment.
Filling a Gap in an Overburdened System
The need the charity addresses is substantial. Hillsborough County's dependency system manages approximately 3,200 children, with community organizations supporting more than 750 foster families across Tampa Bay as of this month, according to child welfare service reports shared on Facebook. Hillsborough County has historically carried one of the largest foster care caseloads in Florida. Celebrate Birthdays has also extended its reach into classrooms, supplying Classroom Birthday Bins to teachers at Title 1 elementary schools so that low-income students are celebrated among their peers, a program detailed by SVPCares Tampa Bay.
For Nate's family, Saturday's celebration was a milestone worth marking publicly after years of quieter hospital fights. His story now stands alongside the thousands of other Tampa Bay children the nonprofit has touched since two nurses decided a grandmother's tears over an unaffordable birthday cake shouldn't happen twice.
