Bowling raises funds to help Shen middle-school student
HALFMOON (Oct. 25) — When Acadia Middle School teachers Leanne Haluska and Meghan Sprissler heard their former student Ben Mayo was suffering from medulloblastoma, a type of malignant brain tumor, they knew they had to help him and his family.
Mayo has been in Massachusetts General Hospital for the past 8 weeks undergoing treatment and physical therapy, meaning his family is spending a lot of time in Boston to be with him.
A fundraiser for Ben Mayo, a Shen middle school student being treated for a brain tumor, attracted 175 bowlers to Spare Time - Clifton Park.
To start, the teachers chose to have a bowling fundraiser at Spare Time – Clifton Park. They advertised it with posters throughout the Shenendehowa schools and on community bulletin boards at restaurants and other businesses throughout the area, hoping for a good turnout. The response was overwhelming: about 175 bowlers took part, and several other people stopped by just to make donations to the cause.
“This is much more than we expected,” Sprissler said. “We have had every lane filled since we got here.”
Word had spread throughout the community, and Mayo’s friends and former classmates came out to support his cause.
“We’ve seen 30-40 of his friends and their families,” Haluska said, “and that’s just who we know of.”
And sometimes it was even friends of friends. Ed Carroll said he received an email about the event from the parent of a player on his son’s baseball team.
“We came out just to support Ben,” said Carroll, who was bowling with his sons, Chase, Eddie and Mason. “I’ve heard about the difficult times he has been going through.”
The turnout meant a lot to Mayo’s family.
“It’s so nice that other people are so concerned,” said Amy House, one of Mayo’s cousins. “I know how valuable people’s time is, and it’s so heartwarming that people would come out on a Sunday afternoon.”
Following the success of Sunday’s event, Haluska and Sprissler hope to hold other fundraisers — such as silent auctions, pancake breakfasts, bottle drives and bake sales — in the future. They also hope to finalize the paperwork on becoming an official nonprofit — which they would like to call “Ben There, Beat That” — this week.
The organization’s first committee meeting will be 3:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in Room A301 at Acadia Middle School on the Shen main campus.
Meanwhile, Mayo tries to keep in touch with his family and friends with a page on CaringBridge.org and a new cell phone.
“We text back and forth,” said James Mayo, Ben’s older brother. “He seems to be in good spirits.”
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