August 15, 2014 at 3:10 p.m.
Benefit for 5-year-old boy with lymphoma be held Aug. 16
Benefit for 5-year-old boy with lymphoma be held Aug. 16
By Kayla Thomason-
The day will include fun activities for kids such as a bounce house, face painting, prizes and food. All proceeds will go to the family of Cameron Dahm.
"I think Cameron is really excited for the weekend, it'll be nice for him to be out and see everybody," said Cameron's mother Karissa Dahm.
"Wolfman" will open the day with music starting at 10 a.m. A garage sale and bag sale will also start at that time.
Those participating in the bag sale can fill a bag with clothes for $10. A high percentage of the clothes will be name brand, organizers say.
Approximately 10 different families have donated items to the sale including bikes, children's items, collectibles, antiques, furniture, a dining room table, couch, leather recliner, holiday items and more.
Raffles will start between noon and 2 p.m. The winners will be announced at 6 p.m.
Many stores donated raffle items, including clothes, shoes, purses, formal dresses, a wedding dress and bridesmaids' dresses.
Gift certificates, a one-night stay at a casino, handmade afghans, handmade headbands, a scrapbook package, free pizzas from Papa Murphy's, T-shirts, a free 5-by-7-inch photo from Decades Photo, and a whole grill set (brushes, other utensils, seasonings, sauce) from Leisure City will also be raffled off.
Re-Vive and Kid's Kloset donated clothing, toys and other items for children.
The silent auction will include a Ducks Unlimited walking chair that was hand-carved, an antique set of bottles and more.
Jr Salsa's donated cheese, napkins and hot dog boats for the lunch as well as gift certificates for the raffle.
Lunch will be Indian tacos, taco toppings on Indian fry bread. The meal will be sold for $7.
There will also be hot dogs on a bun with ketchup and mustard. Soda and bottled water will also be available.
The bake sale and lunch will start between noon and 2 p.m.
Volunteers are baking their favorite homemade treats. The homemade goodies will be first-come, first-serve, as approximately 15 people are baking.
"Cameron is going to make his own cupcakes so he will have his own item there of his favorite cupcakes," Dahm said. "We wanted to have Cameron be involved in something in his name and that's kind of where it started off because everyone was doing these little things and we really wanted to do something that Cameron was involved with where he could see what a community is all about."
The community's efforts and support mean the world to the family, Dahm said, adding that the trips to Marshfield for Cameron's treatments have taken a toll.
"I have to say thanks to everybody who's really helped me through this because without them I don't think I could have pulled it off," she said.
All of the money raised will be put in an account as an emergency fund for Cameron. It will help defray the cost of travel and other expenses.
"I don't know where else we could have gotten that much support from the community," she said. "This community has really, really carried us along and hopefully after this is done and we can say that we beat it and we survived we can turn around and help the next person in need."
Cameron has stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoblastic lymphoma, which affects the lymphocytes in the thymus and lymph nodes.
Dahm said she took Cameron to the doctor because he was coming down with a lot of common illnesses (he had the flu three times in a hort period of time), couldn't sleep because he couldn't breathe, stopped eating and coughed so hard that he vomited.
"They took an X-ray and immediately rushed us down to Marshfield and his right lung was actually collapsing and his esophagus was getting pinched off from the tumor in his chest because it had attached itself to his esophagus and his right lung and it was in between his lungs and his heart," Dahm said.
Cameron had bone marrow testing because the doctors thought he might have leukemia. When that test came back negative the doctors told the family he'd need to undergo a procedure that he had a 50/50 chance of surviving. The test was performed and it came back positive for lymphoma.
Cameron was diagnosed March 28 and started chemotherapy in April. He has had to undergo surgery and intense chemotherapy and will have to continue treatment for two years before the family will know the results of their efforts.
"[The doctors] explain it as intense chemo because it's like within every seven days he has to go for another set of chemo and there are different phases and the phase he is in now he has to go every two days, every 10 days, so it's a little bit more but it comes back and forth between different phases and how often we have to go," she said.
Since Cameron was diagnosed, he has spent 80 percent of his time in the hospital, his mother said.
Cameron will start kindergarten this fall, taking on what he can handle. He will celebrate his sixth birthday on Sept. 22.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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