One of the greatest perks about living in a small rural community is how citizens pull together in times of trouble, and that’s exactly what happened in Escalante for the family of Sweden Sorensen, age three, who was diagnosed with leukemia in November. Gold is the color designated for childhood cancer. December 12 was the perfect time to bring out a crowd with a boys basketball game against the Milford Tigers for this “gold” game.
Planning and organizing started weeks before the game by Autumn Gleave, Simone Griffin, Lindsey Lindsay, and Erica Shakespear, who set a goal of raising $5,000. The Sorensens had to temporarily relocate to Salt Lake City for Sweden’s treatments and were gone until shortly before the event.
With some previous experience with fundraising, Autumn reached out through emails, fliers, and Facebook and was gratified at the tremendous response. Ace Hardware in Panguitch donated a smoker, Asa and Daniel Bradford donated a shotgun, and Autumn’s sister and brother-in-law donated a full beef for the raffle drawings and two half beef for the silent auction. The silent auction was set up in the Escalante High School foyer during the basketball game. Items from as far away as Spanish Fork and Cedar City were displayed and bid on.
Students and adults alike wore white custom-designed “Sparkle Like Sweden” t-shirts, and the Escalante team wore matching gold socks to show support at the Gold Game. The Milford team was sensitive to the situation because one of their girl seniors, a phenomenal athlete, had also been diagnosed with leukemia at the age of three. The Tigers sponsored a fundraiser for her years earlier. They brought bags of gifts to present to the Sorensens. Sweden, understandably, had to stay home to protect her compromised immune system.
Everyone who attended the event could choose from watching the basketball game with halftime entertainment by all the dancers, eating baked goodies and concession meals, buying a t-shirt, and bidding at the silent auction, which brought a lot of interest.
One Escalante couple who had driven back that evening from a vacation in Arizona went straight to the high school, interested in bidding on one of the half beefs. The couple hovered close by the bidding sheets near the end of the third quarter when bidding would close. Another gentleman was also nearby, keeping an eye on the progress.
Each half beef went up in $100 increments, slowly approaching the market value of $1200 plus the cost of cut and wrap. One bid leapt to $1500, a jump of $600, securing that one. Bidding was anonymous up to that point, with parties identified by number rather than name.
The other two parties kept discreetly raising their bid on the remaining half, until they saw who they were bidding against. They laughed and shook hands and agreed to share the cost and the half beef, amicably resolving the friendly competition.
At the end of the evening, Simone Griffin announced they had met their goal of raising $5,000 and qualified for a matching donation from Millie’s Princess Foundation, an organization that saw a flier in Panguitch and contacted Autumn with the matching offer. The Milford Tigers won both the JV and varsity games, but both teams scored 11 3-point baskets at $100 a piece for another $1100 donated from Orton’s Farm store in Panguitch. Once all the monies were tallied, Autumn reported that they far exceeded their goal, grateful for everyone’s support. Attendees are also grateful for the organizers who made the evening such a delightful opportunity to lighten the Sorensens’ load.
– The Byway
Feature image caption: Sweden for whom the Gold Game was held. Courtesy of Dan’l Lindsay.