In the words of others

Words are escaping me.

So today I’m going to let others tell the story of this week. In their words. With thanks for their talent, their understanding, their compassion.

The two events of this week - Basebald and the 5-year remembrance of the baseball bus accident - were totally separate events. However with them happening just two days apart, they seem to be somehow connected.

Bluffton baseball offers shear support to kids with cancer
More than 12,000 children and teenagers are diagnosed with cancer every year. About 45 Bluffton University baseball players and coaches symbolically showed they care. (as of 3 p.m. Friday, March 2, the total raised for St. Baldrick’s Foundation was $7,886.60)
more >>>
Bluffton public relations

Hair was flying
A stage was set up in The Commons during lunch so all could see. The Curling Iron in Bluffton closed up shop so the hairdressers could volunteer to shave heads.
The Courier Online video

Two childhood cancer survivors oversee
Five-year-old Austin Gallagher has a full head of hair now, but that wasn't always the case. In 2007, his mother Krissy says he was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer, which only affects about 20 children each year nationwide. Austin and his family were present for the Basebald shaving.
WLIO news cast
Jax Schneider, a Lima-area youngster told the Marbeck crowd "I kicked cancer's..."

Mom’s blog
It was all very sweet and I think that seeing Austin there had a definite impact on the young men shaving. … hearing a tiny bit of Austin’s story and seeing him there in the flesh, looking so normal, looking like they may have looked fifteen years ago, made it all the more meaningful.
Krissy Dietrich Gallagher's blog about life, luck, love, parenting, writing, and, of course, cancer

Bluffton baseball moving forward
There was no mistaking the camaraderie as Bluffton University baseball players lined up to have their heads shaved in front of an enthusiastic lunch crowd at the campus student center.
more >>>
Toledo Blade

Berta's story inspirational, touching lives
Tim Berta, a senior student coach, was nearly among the dead. “They told me I would never walk, never drive, never graduate, never learn anything new,” he said. “They thought I was done then.’
more >>>
Lima News

Five years later, Bluffton remembers tragedy

Kathy Dickson led a responsive reading with Estee Arend, Zachary’s sister and a current junior at Bluffton. Among the biblical verses they quoted were three that were also among Scripture readings by Coach James Grandey and alumnus Tim Berta—Hebrews 13:5 (“Again, we hear God say, ‘Never will I leave you or forsake you’”); Isaiah 41:10 (“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God”); and Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God.”)
more >>>
Bluffton public relations
 
Amen