Key to fundraising

As the youth branch of the International Kiwanis Club, Key clubs also focus their efforts on making a difference in their communities, and this fall Havre High School Key Club is working to paint the town blue to raise money for a classmate with cancer and her family.

Havre Key Club works each year to do service for and in their homes, schools and community, said John Ita, high school teacher and the club's faculty adviser. At the beginning of the school year, club members decided that they wanted to target their major fundraising campaign for a K-12 student to help 14-year-old Sheradia Linton, a freshman this year.

Club members are using 2-foot and 4-foot tall stencils to paint blue ponies on customers' sidewalks and driveways. The cost is $25 for the small blue pony and $50 for the large.

With the metal stencils already made from a fundraising drive last year and paint donated by ProBuild, Havre Hardware and Home, and Sherwin-Williams, the effort is all profit this year, Ita said, and the club members are about halfway toward their 100-pony goal.

Ita said that he approached Sheradia's father, Scooter Linton, on behalf of the club, and that Scooter accepted the offer, to use the funds for travel and incidental expenses during Sheradia's treatment process.

On a Saturday in early July Sheradia noticed a small lump on her neck, Scooter said, and in a matter of three hours the lump grew to almost softball size. Sheradia was taken to the emergency room in Havre where blood work was taken for tests, and she had an ultrasound of the lump.

"Nothing came back conclusive," Scooter said. "Everything looked fine."

So they scheduled a biopsy for a few weeks later, when the family had time to slow down from their busy schedule, but from that test it became obvious that this was a serious situation, he said, and within a few days they test came back positive for Burkitt's lymphoma, a fast-growing and aggressive cancer.

Scooter said he and his wife, Rayminda, decided immediately to take Sheradia to Seattle Children's Hospital, and it would have to be done right away, though they opted to drive there as a family rather than Medivac their daughter to Seattle. They just had to tell Sheradia, who was in band camp at that moment.

"So we sat her down in the park there beside the field and basically told her what was going on and what it would mean, that in 24 hours (the family) would be heading off to Seattle and treatment would start right away," he said, adding that "there were a lot of tears. Life changed right away."

Sheradia has been in treatment since Aug. 28. Initial radiation treatments shrank the tumor significantly and doctors expect subsequent chemotherapy treatments to last up to another six months, Scooter said.

She has four to six chemo treatments over five to six days, then gets 10 to 14 days off. After the treatments she is weak for several days, but recovers for about five good days before starting the next round, so how she's doing "is kind of a roller coaster," he added.

The family - Rayminda, Sheradia, when she's not in the hospital, her sister, Zephy, 12, and Scooter's mother, whom Sheradia affectionately calls Nanma, who flew in from New Zealand - stay at Ronald McDonald House, along with Scooter, who travels to Seattle regularly as he gets time from his job at BNSF Railway Co. Zephy is enrolled at Havre Middle School, but attends classes at a school set up with the hospital for family members of long-term patients, while Sheradia does a more independent study, working on her studies on her good days.

"We decided right away that we were going to use this opportunity to grow closer together, and to just enjoy the journey together because, you know, that's life," he said. "... You just hope you live a way that gives God glory in the process."

Scooter said he has been overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of support they've found along the way, from the staff at the hospital and Ronald McDonald House to their family, the Havre community, the Havre High and Middle School teachers and students, and his employer and co-workers who have been generous with giving him time away.

"The support there is amazing, and the support here is just mind-blowing," he said. "... It's that kind of stuff that people don't have to do, but it's so cool to see it. ... It's pretty cool to see her peers supporting her in that way. It's such a huge encouragement to her."

"I can't even describe how it makes her feel," he added. "It's tough to find words."

Ironically, one of the last-minute things Sheradia had to do before leaving for her cancer treatments was move up a haircut appointment, she said in a post on her website. She had planned to donate her hair to Locks for Love, and her hairdresser got her in early to still make that possible.

People can follow Sheradia's progress, and offer support, at her website sheradiasepicjourney.blogspot.com.

Havre Key Club is a strong group with more than 40 members this year. They are active with the community, volunteering with the elderly, doing lawn care and snow removal, earning national recognition for their Trick or Treat for UNICEF drive and fundraising for local families.

To order a blue pony stencil, call Ita at 265-6732, ext. 6217, or Kim Kaftan at 265-1774.