Austintown students raise money for young out-of-towner

AUSTINTOWN

Austintown Fitch High School students, staff, and community members raised more than $1,000 for a 5-year-old boy battling cancer that isn’t from this area.

A charity basketball game that pitted students against faculty staff at Austintown Middle School raised $1,101 from admission donations, raffles of donated items, and donated concessions that were sold during the game.

“Its really surreal actually. That this community that doesn’t know him [supports him]. It seems like the kind of thing that happens in movies,” Nick McElroy said.

McElroy is the father of Brayden Mitchell, 5, who has stage three kidney cancer. McElroy, attended Tuesday night’s game, “Ballin’ for Brayden.” The family lives in Brunswick, about 40 minutes south of Cleveland, and Brayden has been treated at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.

McElroy said Brayden isn’t healthy enough to be around as many people that attended the game.

Fitch senior Sarah Melfe first heard about Brayden from her assistant basketball coach, Maria Rohan, who is a nurse at University Hospitals and helps take care of the boy.

Read the complete story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.