For Bellwood-Antis students who have taken part in Mini-THON over the years, childhood cancer has a different connection to the leadership group and students participating in it now.
Between the time frame of 2016 2017, Madison Shura, who was a student at Myers Elementary School, battled Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG,) which is a type of brain cancer. In that short time, she managed to make a huge impact on her classmates and teachers with her strength and bravery in the face of insurmountable odds.
That made raising over $25,000 at last Friday’s Mini-THON event feel like a huge accomplishment for the event’s organizers.
“We were close with the Shuras. I used to babysit Maddie’s sister Libby,” senior Addy Turek said. “Her story adds to our cause.”
You can check out an extensive photo slide show from Mini-THON here.
Mini-THON was Bellwood-Antis’s final fundraiser supporting Four Diamonds, a group dedicated to battling childhood cancer, by hosting a Mini-THON dance. The purpose is to help raise money to not only help financially assist families with children battling cancer, but to also donate to find a cure and put an end to the disease.
Every year since B-A began hosting Mini-THON in 2018, the trend has been that a little bit more money is raised than the previous year. However, this year it was rumored that goal might not be achieved.
When asked about this in the days before Mini-THON, advisor Mr. Hallahan commented, “No, nope.”
It’s no wonder Mr. Hallahan was ecstatic over the total that was raised.
“I’m proud of our students and community for helping us raise over $25,000 to fight childhood cancer,” he said. “I figured the total would be close to the goal. Everyone chipped in during the eleventh hour of fundraising and we were able to beat last year’s total, it’s awesome.”
Mr. Elder, who also helps run Mini-THON, added that’s he’s always a little pessimistic when it comes to fundraising goals.
“We actually went into Friday below not only last year, but our goal of $20,000 as well,” he said. “What put us over the top was that we had a couple of big donor checks come in Friday, the Myers change drive totals, and the donations of all of the students to attend Mini-THON and play in the tournaments. To say it came down to the last day really is the truth!”
Myers came through much stronger than Mini-THON organizers anticipated, producing more than $5,000 with a series of stall days.
Both advisor’s mutually agreed that January’s Mr. Mini-THON, won by Jacob Caracciolo, was the biggest fundraiser; however Mr. Elder remarked that the team “had a couple of big ones.”
“This year it wasn’t one fundraiser that put us over the top, but the combination of many,” he said. “Mr. Mini-THON was the biggest, but the Mini-THON minutes at games, Stall Days, t-shirt drive, and Myers change drive all helped. Plus, this year we had a lot more corporate sponsors than we did last year. I truly think that those sponsors made the difference.”
In the end, the final total exceeded the $24, 239.60 raised last year, and it brings B-A’s total amount raised running Mini0-THON since 2017 to upwards of $175,000.
“This year’s event and total money raised reflects all the hard work and dedication that our leadership committee has put into this,” said Mr. Hallahan. “Our group of seniors have put a ton of time and effort into making Mini-THON a huge success for the past 2 years.”
Mini-THON included activities that were held before the dance, such as a basketball and volleyball tournament. The winners for the basketball tournament were The Lady Blue Devil’s and for the volleyball tournament How We Set Your Mother.
Last year, the Mini-THON dance fundraiser was recontinued after four years after being suspended in 2021 due to COVID. This year’s leaders Ava Patton, Avah Hassler, Addy Turek, and Gigi Juart were also the group’s leaders last year, making them more experienced and aware for what to include this year.
“After getting it started last year, more people wanted to be involved this year. It helped that we reached out to businesses much sooner than last year and more students knew about it because we did the dance last year,” Addy said.
Avah said their work is something that can now be passed to the next generation of student organizers.
“We played a factor in a lot behind the scenes,” Avah Hassler stated, “but juniors are ready. We brought it back. It feels good to bring it back. And with Maddie’s story, it hits closer to home.”
Ava Patton also added, “It’s really rewarding. It feels pretty good.”
