by Dakota Antelman
Close to 25 students spent 45 minutes on Friday afternoon hurling shaving cream “pies” at gym teachers Dee Grassey and Wayne Page.
The event, which was hosted by the 15-40 Connection club, offered students the chance to throw a pie at either of the teachers in exchange for a $1 donation to the Delete Blood Cancer foundation. It drew in $67 in donations from a crowd of students that gathered outside the Hudson High School gym.
“I was expecting lower amounts [of students] because it is after school on a Friday. Kids just want to go home,” said club member Morgan Nelson. “I was really happy with the amount of people and teachers that came and pied the gym teachers.”
The money will help to add donors to the National Bone Marrow Registry. The registry manages transplant procedures for bone cancer patients and donors in five countries across North America and Europe. It adds new donors to its registry daily and relies on financial donations to help absorb the costs of registration. The $67 collected on Friday amounts to enough money to add one donor to the registry. For the students and staff who organized the fundraiser, that is monumental.
“When people have blood cancer, sometimes their last chance is getting a bone marrow transplant,” explained club member Hannah Pollan. “There are about 7,000 characteristics in bone marrow, and they all need to be in the right order [for a transplant to work]. The chances of finding a match are like one in a million. Because of that, this is a great organization to help out.”
