Searching for the Answer

Cancer Fundraiser

In 2010 the middle school my mother was a content mastery teacher at, Stephen F. Austin Middle School, or SFA, had the staff work together to arrange a fundraiser for my mother. This was after they were made aware of the situation, the combination of dying from cancer, having an infant grandchild, and having absolutely no money to cover even basic expenses. So the staff, primarily the cafeteria and janitorial staff, cleaned the cafeteria, set up tables and chairs and cooked a meal of hamburgers and fries to be given for a $5 donation for those who attended. There were also tables where people had donated items or services to be bid on in a silent auction.

On the day of the fundraiser I had the use of the Wyble's mini-van and so I went to SFA to be with my parents. It was late afternoon and when I arrived there weren't many people and I was made aware of a problem. The employees at Beall's the retail store she worked nights at had all agreed to pay for meals for the staff on the day of the fundraiser, but it was across town and my mother had no plan to get the food there, and so I volunteered. It just seemed logical and I think in a way it really helped because by the time I got to Bealle's it was well past lunch time and the lady was agitated that the food had arrived so late. I completely understood her frustration and helped her carry the food in, I should have reminded her that this food was to support one of their staff that is dying of cancer so tempers should have been even keeled, but to each his own, sometimes it's difficult to think when your food is delayed and hunger sets in.

I believe there was a gentleman that was a father to one of the kids that my brother Wesley went to private school with that donated several hundred dollars in the silent auction. I remember that because my mother spoke of how much he helped out. One of the saddest parts of this story though is that time and technology could have made all the difference in the world. This was before gofundme and donation websites that broadcast your situation so the only ones made aware of the fundraiser and my mother's situation were close former friends, church goer's, staff of SFA, and those that happened to come across the small entry in the local newspaper.
The end result was not just that little money was raised from how few people showed up, but there were probably a hundred or more hamburgers cooked that were uneaten at the end of the fundraiser once they shut it down. In my present I would hope that they donated the burgers to the homeless before they went bad. The cafeteria workers said we could freeze them, but time was already against us, there was no use. When you are constantly evicted not having but a small freezer and have less than a year to live you just don't think of such things because the wall of reality that stops us all.