THE BIG GAME

The final score was 52–51, but the stars of the game had to sit on the sidelines.

Kelsey Judd, 8, and Kristen Neale, 11, sat and watched last Friday as their teachers from Westgate Elementary School played against Edmonds police and firefighters in a basketball game fundraiser. The money raised at the free event through donations – more than $2,200 – will be split between the two girls to help pay for their leukemia treatments. An estimated 300 parents, staff members, students and community members attended.

“It’s gonna be funny, because they’re teachers and I don’t think they play (basketball) a lot,” Kelsey said before the game.

A second-grader, Kelsey was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2003, undergoing radiation treatment to her spine and brain. She currently receives chemotherapy once every two weeks as well as chemotherapy pills every night. Kelsey’s record attendance this year is three half-days in one week, said her mom, Lisa Judd.

Likewise, Kristen, a fifth-grader, was diagnosed in March 2003, undergoing a bone marrow transplant in October. Because her treatment weakens her immune system and wipes out any vaccinations she’s had, Kristen can’t go back to school for at least a year, said her dad, Nigel Neale.

The donations collected at the event will certainly help pay the families’ mounting medical bills, which are quickly nearing the “thousands and thousands” mark, the families said. But the community support they have received greatly outweighs the monetary gifts, they said.

Lisa Judd, on leave from her job as a secretary at Edmonds Community College, said her co-workers have donated so much of their own paid leave, that “I could be gone 52 weeks and it would all be paid.”

Friends of the Judd family also have made meals for them and helped babysit Kelsey’s two-and-a half year old twin brothers, Lisa Judd said.

“I’m just amazed – I don’t know how we would get through without the help,” Lisa Judd said. “Every need that’s come about, someone’s helped us.”

Nigel Neale, a single father, works part time as a freelance teacher for adult education and does not have health insurance. Since Kristen was diagnosed, school and community members have brought homemade meals for them and occasionally stayed with Kristen when Nigel had to be away, he said.

“I was just ecstatic,” Nigel Neale said of when he learned of the plan for the fundraiser. “What an incredible school to have someone wanting to do something like that when they’ve done so much already.”

That “someone” was John Pope, a PE teacher at Westgate. When Pope heard about the two students going through cancer treatment, he said, he just had to do something to help.

“I really wanted to do something for these two families and I wanted to bring the Westgate family together with those in the community to really help rally support for these two girls,” Pope said.

After recruiting local police and firefighters, Pope planned and put together the fundraiser in a matter of weeks. He even got Edmonds police officer Aaron Greenmun – a leukemia survivor himself – to send out a press release about the event to co-workers, hand out flyers in the community and play in the game.

“It was wonderful – we just had so much fun and a great turnout,” Pope said of the event.

Lisa Judd said she really appreciated how everyone pulled together.

“(John Pope) didn’t even know Kelsey that well,” Lisa Judd said. “I think its very cool to get everyone there – it just makes this more of a community thing.”