Key Club, Eagle Riders give more benefit checks

The Key Club of Havre High School and the Eagle Riders of the Havre Eagles Club held an event Wednesday at 3:20 in Key Club advisor John Ita's classroom at the high school in which they presented two families of the local community with checks from fundraisers that the two groups had held separately.

The two groups presented the families a total of $7,634.42 to help pay for the treatment of three children in the community who have diseases that require serious attention from specialists.

Justin and Bridget Kallenberger are using their donation for the medical care needed for their two daughters, Cadence and Tia. The girls are both diagnosed with a serious, genetic muscle-tissue disorder. The testing required to pinpoint the exact disease is $10,000 per testing, which will be partially covered with the check received Wednesday.

Scott and Jennifer Hendrickson have a son, Dylan, who was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. This disease is a serious cancer of the lymph tissue in the body. The donation received by the Hendrickson family will go toward Dylan's treatment, which will be given while staying at a Ronald McDonald house.

It will also help fund his family's ability to stay with him in the Ronald McDonald house while he is receiving his treatment.

The money was presented in two events, the one Wednesday and another Dec. 20.

The Key Club held their fundraisers Dec. 14 and 15. They were able to put together numerous events with the help of many churches in the community. Each of these churches held a spaghetti feed which was open to the entire community, and all proceeds were split between the two families.

The Eagle Riders held a chili feed Dec. 9, as well as a chili contest in which contestants could give $10 to enter their own recipe and diners $5 to sample and vote on the chilli entries. They raised more than $1,800 on this dinner, and all of these proceeds went to the two families. In addition, they also donated to the two families $730 that they were able to raise from their annual Basket Raffle.

Both the Key Club and the Eagle Riders members said they were very excited to be able to open up such a great opportunity for the community and to get involved with donating their own time and money to something that affects them, literally, so close to home.

John Ita, advisor for the Key Club at Havre High, said that he can already see this being a positive influence on the community.

"I've already heard personal testimonies of other people who say it has encouraged them as well as others to help reach out, so it's already become a very positive thing," he said.

It is in the hopes of many involved that this will encourage the people in the local community to reach out and help each other, especially those in need of a loving hand.

(Kelli Reynolds is a student at Havre High School.)