Windows Phone FindAncestor Control XAML

Now that my app is progressing along I have a proliferation of xaml elements on each of my screens.
I ran into the issue during an event I have the child element but I needed a reference to the parent element.  APIs exist to really ease this process.  Using the VisualTreeHelper I was able to walk the tree with this routine which I discovered in the stackoverflow forum.


XAML:

<DataTemplate x:Key="SimpleItemTemplate">
  <Button Click="Button_Click">In DataTemplate</Button>
</DataTemplate>

Code behind:

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
  Button btn = (Button)sender;
  ListBox lb = FindAncestor<ListBox>(btn);
  Debug.WriteLine(lb);
}

public static T FindAncestor<T>(DependencyObject from)
  where T : class
{
  if (from == null)
  {
    return null;
  }

  T candidate = from as T;
  if (candidate != null)
  {
    return candidate;
  }

  return FindAncestor<T>(VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(from));
}

source:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2633109/listboxitem-parent-returns-nothing-unable-to-get-it-thru-visualtreehelper-getpa
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.media.visualtreehelper.getparent(v=vs.95).aspx