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Dinner to benefit teen with cancer
By Ashley Rhodebeck
Daily News staff writer
A Beloit teen came down with a sore throat last summer that - as a shock to her family - led to a cancer diagnosis.
Her cancer is in remission after several rounds of chemotherapy, and her classmates are rallying behind her by hosting a spaghetti dinner later this month in her honor.
The McNeel Middle School Builders Club will hold the event 5:30 - 7 p.m. May 19 at the school. Attendees can pay at the door or purchase advance tickets by calling (608)361-3853. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for children ages 3 to 10.
The service organization formed three years ago and hosted its first spaghetti dinner to benefit the Hughes family, who lost a son, McNeel student Ben Hughes, in a fire. About $2,000 was raised, and last year the teens earned $2,100 to send to the high school in Enterprise, Ala., that was ravaged by a tornado.
Knowing Charlie Cecilia Marshall-Stevens has been dealing with acute myelogenous leukemia, the club's 30 active members decided to focus their efforts on the seventh-grader.
In addition to planning the menu and making posters advertising the dinner, the teens are organizing a raffle, which has involved the entire school in the event. Each homeroom is creating baskets for the giveaway, adviser Nancy Wenger said.
Stephanie Stevens, the teen's mother and teacher at both Beloit middle schools, said, “It's a wonderful thing what the Builders Club has decided to do,” especially because her husband, Jim Stevens, lost his job while taking family leave to care for the 14-year-old.
Fewer than 500 children annually get the type of leukemia Marshall-Stevens has, Stevens said, explaining an ears, nose and throat specialist diagnosed the teen after discovering her blood count was low. That day the teen went to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison but was later transferred to American Family Children's Hospital also in Madison.
“We've done a lot of trips back and forth,” Stevens said, noting the family continues to make monthly trips to the hospital.
Unlike many cancer patients, Marshall-Stevens could not be near sickly people at times because her cancer was killing off white blood cells. Since her July 6, 2007, diagnosis, she has undergone five rounds of chemotherapy.
“It was pretty intense,” Stevens said.
Marshall-Stevens missed much of the school year, but she continued her lessons from home and the hospital and is easing her way back to school. She plans to become a full-time student next fall.
“At 14 she is my hero as far as what she's went through,” Stevens said. “She's gotten grumpy a couple of times here and there, but she's had a very good outlook about this and has been very positive. She still wants to, later in life, graduate from high school and have her own styling salon. She wants to get married. Sometimes when kids have something like this happen they want to look day to day.”
Her cancer is in remission after several rounds of chemotherapy, and her classmates are rallying behind her by hosting a spaghetti dinner later this month in her honor.
The McNeel Middle School Builders Club will hold the event 5:30 - 7 p.m. May 19 at the school. Attendees can pay at the door or purchase advance tickets by calling (608)361-3853. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for children ages 3 to 10.
The service organization formed three years ago and hosted its first spaghetti dinner to benefit the Hughes family, who lost a son, McNeel student Ben Hughes, in a fire. About $2,000 was raised, and last year the teens earned $2,100 to send to the high school in Enterprise, Ala., that was ravaged by a tornado.
Knowing Charlie Cecilia Marshall-Stevens has been dealing with acute myelogenous leukemia, the club's 30 active members decided to focus their efforts on the seventh-grader.
In addition to planning the menu and making posters advertising the dinner, the teens are organizing a raffle, which has involved the entire school in the event. Each homeroom is creating baskets for the giveaway, adviser Nancy Wenger said.
Stephanie Stevens, the teen's mother and teacher at both Beloit middle schools, said, “It's a wonderful thing what the Builders Club has decided to do,” especially because her husband, Jim Stevens, lost his job while taking family leave to care for the 14-year-old.
Fewer than 500 children annually get the type of leukemia Marshall-Stevens has, Stevens said, explaining an ears, nose and throat specialist diagnosed the teen after discovering her blood count was low. That day the teen went to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison but was later transferred to American Family Children's Hospital also in Madison.
“We've done a lot of trips back and forth,” Stevens said, noting the family continues to make monthly trips to the hospital.
Unlike many cancer patients, Marshall-Stevens could not be near sickly people at times because her cancer was killing off white blood cells. Since her July 6, 2007, diagnosis, she has undergone five rounds of chemotherapy.
“It was pretty intense,” Stevens said.
Marshall-Stevens missed much of the school year, but she continued her lessons from home and the hospital and is easing her way back to school. She plans to become a full-time student next fall.
“At 14 she is my hero as far as what she's went through,” Stevens said. “She's gotten grumpy a couple of times here and there, but she's had a very good outlook about this and has been very positive. She still wants to, later in life, graduate from high school and have her own styling salon. She wants to get married. Sometimes when kids have something like this happen they want to look day to day.”
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