Interested in helping a good cause???

[Coach]

This past December, Wake and I, lost our father-in-law after a battle with cancer. My father-in-law's name is Merle and he passed on December 26th. This was his second bout with lymphoma but this time it spread throughout his body and even into his brain and spine. He spent most of 2011 at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and received a bone marrow transplant that was successful in defeating the cancer. However, the treatments took a toll on his body and led to his eventual passing. I am sure many of you have stories of family members stricken with cancer...some that end well and some that do not. It is my goal to see a cure for this awful disease in my lifetime and I figured I might as well reach out to the BleacherCoaches community as well.

Three years ago, I began organizing a Dance-a-Thon similar to Penn State's famous THON. With student support in grades 6-12 we had our first dance and raised right around $6,500. The next year we raised around $9,000 and last year we raised just over $12,000!! Many of you know that the school I'm part of is Northern Bedford and we are a small school averaging probably 75 kids or so per grade so I'm very proud of our students for being able to raise over $25,000 in the first three years of this dance. I never fundraised myself though and made it my goal to get $500 this year. I'm half way there now and am hoping some of you may be interested in donating to the American Cancer Society. All our donations go to the Cove Relay for Life. A lot of the money donated ends up going to cancer research. Research that allows us to have success stories and allows us to continue to have hope that we someday will beat this awful disease. I know that through current research my father-in-law was able to get a bone marrow transplant and this helped him to see his grandson before passing (first boy in the family after he had 4 girls himself!).

Hearing of our success at NBC, I have networked with Claysburg and they ran their own dance a year ago as well and it was quite successful. This year I was contacted by someone from Philipsburg who wanted to do it at their school. Our dance lasts from 9 PM until 7 AM and it is an absolute blast. Student participation is great.

This year our goal was to once again top $10,000. If any of you would like to help us out while helping the American Cancer Society, please send a check made out to the American Cancer Society to:

Northern Bedford County Middle School
c/o Garry Black
152 NBC Drive
Loysburg, PA 16659

If you do send something, please post a reply or private message me to let me know I should be expecting it. Our dance is next Thursday April 5th!

Thank you for your support. I hope some of you can help make this the best year ever!!!
Woodbury, PA 1