A group of friends who make up Valley With a Heart Benefits will hold a motorcycle ride and family picnic Sunday at Holy Child Grove in Sheatown, Newport Township, to benefit two local boys battling leukemia.
The fundraiser for Justin Burns, 6, of Avoca, and Bobby Drummonds, 2, of Hughestown, is dedicated to the memory of A.J. Novitski, 18, of Mountain Top, who died in June after a battle with leukemia and lymphoma. Registration and breakfast will be held from 8 to 11 a.m.; the ride leaves at 11 a.m. The rain date is Monday.
Burns was born April 19, 2003 with Down syndrome and congenital heart defects. He underwent his first surgery in January 2007 to repair three holes in his heart. After another surgery the following year, he contracted the bacterial infection MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and was hospitalized for a week, his mom Maria said.
In March 2009, he was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of developing blood cells in the bone marrow. He was hospitalized twice and missed kindergarten when he got sick. Starting this month, his chemotherapy will become more intense and he will undergo treatments every day at home, his mom said. They travel to Hershey Medical Center for treatments once a week.
"I don't think he realizes too much the significance of it all," she said. "Sometimes when we pull up to the hospital, he will cry a little but once he gets in there, everyone is so friendly. They try to make it the best for him."
Drummonds was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Sept. 27, 2008. He undergoes chemotherapy once a week at Janet Weis Children's Hospital at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
His father, Richard, a self-employed contractor, took time off work to take care of his 9-year-old brother Richie while his mother Tracy stayed in the hospital.
"The travel expenses add up along with all the other expenses like the lost time at work for my husband. It really took its toll," Tracy Drummonds said. "Hopefully, he will be well and this all will be behind us and just a bad memory."
The funds raised from the motorcycle ride and picnic will help the two families pay for their travel expenses and other necessities, said Rick Temarantz, president of Valley With a Heart Benefits.
Valley With a Heart Benefits started in 2001 to raise funds for Elise Harrison, an 11-year-old girl battling cancer. Since then, the group has raised nearly $200,000 to help seriously ill children and their families in the Wyoming Valley, Temarantz said.
In addition to holding benefits for children each year and donating to the Valley Santa charity to ensure children in need have Christmas gifts, Valley With a Heart Benefits also donates toys to area hospitals and gives away pre-paid gas cards to families of children who must travel out of the area for medical treatments.
Temarantz is encouraged by the overwhelming support the group has received to help sick children.
"Even in this economy, people still give to seriously ill children and that's what it's all about," he said.
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Copyright (C) 2009, The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.