Clarion, Keystone Come Together in Support of the Cancer Center at Clarion Hospital

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published January 31, 2018 5:25 am
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CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) — The power of community was on display Monday night in the Clarion High School gymnasium.

(Photo: Players from Clarion and Keystone as well as the Keystone cheerleaders formed a human ribbon on the court during Monday night’ ceremony. Photo by Chris Rossetti)

On Monday, members of both the Clarion and Knox communities and many others gathered at Clarion High for what has become an annual Cancer Awareness basketball doubleheader featuring the Clarion and Keystone High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams and supporting the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center.

The highlight of the event was a ceremony between the girls’ game and the boys’ game that featured the players, coaches and cheerleaders forming a human ribbon on the court before being joined in the ribbon by cancer survivors and fighters and talks from cancer survivor William Carbaugh and Cancer Center Manager Tracy Myers.

“It’s just so awesome to see so many familiar faces and so many survivors,” Myers said in an address to the packed gym. “What makes our Center special compared to many centers, is the community support. You can tell by the evidence in this room tonight. It’s county-wide. It’s not just here. It’s different churches. It’s different organizations. It’s young people, old people. It’s college students. It’s high school students.”

Monies raised go to the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center

Monies raised go to the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center

The event, which included a Chinese Auction, the selling of t-shirts, an enhanced concession stand and other fundraising activities, is a collaborative effort between the Clarion and Keystone booster clubs, teams and schools.

“We had done this for many years with Union High School and it was called the Battle in the Burg,” Mary Rearick, the Keystone Basketball Booster president who also works at the Cancer Center, said. “As people in Union retired from doing that, we were left with nobody to do a cancer awareness game with. So, I asked a couple of people at Clarion if they would be interested, and they were. That is how it began.”

All monies raised from the event are donated to the Clarion Hospital Cancer Center, which uses it in many different ways to directly support it’s patients, according to Rearick.

“We have two different funds,” Rearick said. “We have a patient care fund which helps the patients with immediate things such as maybe their utility bills or their groceries or gas cards. But, I believe this year we are putting our donation towards the Clarion Sunshine Project which helps the patients with their co-pays and their hospital bills which aren’t covered by their insurance. It’s huge. It’s just awesome that our community comes together and helps the patients like this.”

Carbaugh, who was diagnosed with cancer in May 2017, had surgery to remove one half of his left lung in July 2017 and started four months of chemotherapy at the Cancer Center in Sept. 2017, talked about how much the Center has meant to him.

“As expected, I was scared and had no idea what to expect,” Carbaugh told the crowd. “The staff at the Center was very supportive. They helped makes things so much easier. At a time when life is in so much turmoil, they greet you with a smile and lots of days with a fresh cookie. They are there with financial help if it is needed at a time when you shouldn’t have to worry about those things. On holidays, when most people are thinking of their big meal, the Cancer Center donates turkeys to families who don’t have the time, the money or even the strength to worry about it. They give you small gifts to lift your spirits and time to think of something other than this terrible disease. I will never forget all the people I have met through the whole experience.”

Watch Carbaugh’s full remarks.

Myers said last year she made a presentation in Pittsburgh about the local support the Cancer Center gets and people there were blown away.

“Last year, we took a PowerPoint presentation down to Allegheny General Hospital to show people in Pittsburgh what people in Clarion County do for patients,” Myers said. “They were blown away. I had 20, 25 people come up to me afterward and say ‘wow, we have never seen anything like that.’ I know I feel so blessed to live here. I feel so blessed to have all of you in my community helping my patients. We were able to do something for everybody who had a treatment between Christmas and New Years, just something special for each one of them.”

Members of the crowd were given the opportunity to write the name of someone they wanted to honor who has fought cancer.

Members of the crowd were given the opportunity to write the name of someone they wanted to honor who has fought cancer.

Myers also took time to point out the efforts of Tike Kahle, whose Mrs. Claus Club paid for the t-shirts and who has had a “massive” impact on the Cancer Center.

“I can honestly say I can’t think of one individual in the entire county who has had such a massive impact on our Cancer Center. I could go on and on about the special things she does for our patients. It’s amazing. It’s contagious. She’s amazing. I honestly believe a lot of what she does is infectious across the entire county.”

Watch Myers’ full remarks.

According to Rearick, a lot of coordination goes on between both Keystone and Clarion to pull off the event.

“There was a lot of coordination between our boosters and the Clarion boosters,” Rearick said. “Both had our own ideas of what to do separately at our schools and then we brought all that together (Monday) night. The Chinese Auction, for example, is two schools worth of stuff put together. There were so many prizes, it’s awesome.”

This year’s event took a little extra effort considering it was originally scheduled for Jan. 5 but had to be postponed until Monday because of bad weather on the fifth.

“We have two athletic directors — Nancy Mills at Clarion and Bill Irwin at Keystone — who are very excited about this event along with our coaches,” Rearick said. “They feel it’s an important event for the community and the players to be able to do this.”

Rearick especially likes the human ribbon.

“We had always done the human ribbon with Union,” Rearick said. “That is a touching ceremony. It shows the players how important it is to be a community and support people who have cancer.”

Watch as the players form the human ribbon while the Clarion Singers perform.

Cancer survivors and fighters joined the human ribbon.

Cancer survivors and fighters joined the human ribbon.

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