Boys and girls varsity basketball programs host fundraiser for Kyle Gauer
February 22, 2018
In late December, senior Kyle Gauer was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a leukemia that develops from cells that would turn into white blood cells and can progress very quickly. After learning about Gauer and his family and what they have been going through, some of his classmates decided to help out. With the help of science teacher Matthew Sullivan during the boys and girls varsity basketball games on Feb. 20 hosted a raffle to raise money for the Gauer family.
“About a month ago, my son came to me with an idea to raise money at one of our basketball games for Kyle,” science teacher Matt Sullivan I said. “I spoke with some of the basketball players about doing a three point shooting contest, so the boys and girls basketball teams played against each other and raised almost a $1,000 in pledges in the three point shooting contest.”
After his son came to him with the idea about wanting to help, Mr. Sullivan and his family began planning the fundraisers.
“We know Katie [Kyle’s sister] and knew what they were going through,” senior Matt Sullivan said. “We just wanted to do whatever we could to help. We are really proud and are just amazed how the community has come together to help.”
So far, $4,700 has been raised and it is expected that close to $5,000 will be raised once all the donations have come in.
“At the Feb. 20 basketball game, we collected donations from the crowd,” Mr. Sullivan said. “We also collected raffle tickets for two gift certificate boards, one board with $300 worth in gift cards from local Fenton merchants and the other board with $250 worth. We had a raffle for the gift certificates, a three point shooting contest between the teams and then we went out to the crowds and passed out these little tickets that had Kyle’s picture on it and a twix bar [Kyle’s favorite]. We will continue to pass them out at lunches and people can donate then.”
Anyone who would like to donate or make a contribution to the Gauer family to help them with expenses, should donate to the Go Fund Me page here.
