Many of you will remember our campaign last year to support the Whittom family as their son Austin spent most of his summer in McMaster Hospital - Hamilton battling leukemia. Last year, Austin underwent
chemotherapy treatment and was able to get his cancer in remission by the fall.
He returned to a mostly regular life again with checkups throughout the year.
His family was devastated to find out that he would need to be admitted back
into hospital on September 23 this year - the leukemia is back. Read on to find out how we can all support the Whittom family.
Austin will undergo chemo again until he is in remission and then will need to have a bone marrow transplant. This will take the family to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto to have the procedure done. Austin is lucky to have a donor but it also causes more pain for the family because his younger brother will donate the bone marrow for him. Austin's mom (Jen) will stay in Hamilton with him while he goes through all his treatment and testing. This is something no family should ever have to go through and community support at this difficult time is greatly appreciated.
Our Call To Action
Last year
orange bracelets were worn by many to show support and this year the Wildcats hockey organization has put together the
Orange Lace Campaign to raise funds to support the family. We are asking
all Team Managers to complete the attached order form ASAP and collect $5 for each set of laces sold.
With the generous support of the supplier Sportzone, all proceeds will go directly to the family.
Team Managers: Please complete this
order form, and submit one cheque from your team
(payable to WMHA) to the Hockey Office no later than SUNDAY, October 6th. We will tally and submit the orders to Sportzone, who plans to turn the order around by Wednesday of next week (October 9th).
Our goal is to have every Wildcat player wearing orange laces and all photos this fall will show the teams wearing their own laces. We will post all team photos on the website and Facebook this year in hopes of lifting Austin's spirits.
Orange Lace Order Form.docx
Special thanks to Ann Kilgour for this idea, and to Sportzone for supporting the fundraising effort.