Courtesy of Gatehouse Media
All of the money raised by Braintree police officers and firefighters who skated to a 4-4 tie after a shootout at a Feb. 21 charity hockey game at the Zapustas Arena in Randolph is going to Dr. Giselle Sholler in Burlington, Vermont, who is conducting research to find a cure for neuroblastoma, a particularly deadly pediatric tumor.
The Lacey family of Braintree, whose son Will has been diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma, is forwarding the proceeds to Dr. Stoller.
Will, a hockey enthusiast who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the age of seven months, is now five years old.
We raised $3,000 that night, and Bob Fatherty from Cops for Kids with Cancer is working on a $5,000 donation which, if it happens, will raise the total to around $8,000, Officer Michael Want said.
Want emphasized that putting the game together was a group effort.
Will's father is a classmate of mine, he said. We graduated together. I attended Will's fundraisers, and I felt that I wanted to do something to help. I saw that Will was taking Learn to Skate lessons, and a bunch of us (police officers and firefighters) play pick-up hockey once a week, so we decided to organize a game between the two departments.
Shane and Owen Kelly, the brothers of Charlotte Kelly, a three-year-old girl from Braintree who also suffers from neuroblastoma, participated in the warm-ups, as did Will.
A fundraiser in honor of Will is scheduled to be held on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Tirrell Room in Quincy featuring live Irish music, dancing, appetizers, desserts, raffles, silent auctions, a disk jockey, and a cash bar. Tickets cost $40. For further information, visit the Cure Me I'm Irish website at www.curemeimirish.org.
A fundraiser for Charlotte is set to take place on April 10 from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Boston Teachers Union Hall on 180 Mount Vernon St. in Dorchester behind Bayside Expo. Further information about it can be found at www.carepages.com.
