OCCHA sponsors annual Halloween party fundraiser

October 30, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Plenty of chuckles abounded when several dozen children and adults entered the hall dressed deliberately outlandishly, but the underlying cause that united them was anything but a laughing matter.

“My father was diagnosed two years ago in July,” Terri Schneider said, noting when his dad learned he had multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that affects mainly the bones and has no known cure.

Schneider’s father, James Sheets, and his diagnosis were instrumental in her decision to found Team M&M, which is affiliated with the annual Relay for Life event. Team members also were on hand for Saturday’s second annual Halloween party and fundraiser at the Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana organization’s hall, 3660 Shirley Road, off Midlothian Boulevard.

Proceeds are to go to American Cancer Society programs and for greater awareness of the disease, organizers said.

Schneider didn’t mention a financial figure for the family-friendly gathering, but said her 16-member team’s goal is to raise at least $5,000 at relays and other events.

The disease hits close to home for Schneider also because her mother, Rosa Sheets, is a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1983 while in her early 20s. Twelve years later, she had a cancerous wedge of one of her ovaries removed, she recalled.

“I have my days, but I’m cancer-free, that’s the important part,” said Sheets, Team M&M’s co-captain.

Sheets added that as frightening as a cancer diagnosis can be, a healthful perspective on the

situation and taking stock of what’s truly important in life can go a long way toward making dealing with the disease easier.

“I feel blessed every morning when I wake up and he’s here,” she said in tears, referring to James Sheets. “Be kind to family members. You really have to learn to face every day and take every day as a blessing. Do things you’re afraid you will never be able to do.”

The Halloween spirit was alive and well during the five-hour party and funfest, at which youngsters and adults dressed as witches, a fairy, a dragon, a ladybug, a police officer, Batman, the Pillsbury dough boy and Jason, the masked killer from the popular horror movie series “Friday the 13th.”

Mixed in, of course, were unique costumes and plenty of room for creativity, such as 4-year-old Ella Cantwell’s a large pink poodle. Ella, of New Springfield, came with her mother, Tiffany Cartwell.

Perhaps being conventional wasn’t in the cards for Kathryn Castle, 13, of Youngstown and 16-year-old Kara Boerio of Boardman, who dressed as surgeons. The main deciding factor for their costume was the popular TV medical drama “Gray’s Anatomy,” Kathryn explained.

Leah Diamantes wasn’t shy about wearing a large doughnut box and complementary cup as parts of her anatomy. The 13-year-old Horizons Science Academy eighth-grader used red jelly to simulate blood and wore on her head a coffee cup and a small container of sugar.

The festivities also included a disc jockey, a 50/50 raffle, a Chinese auction and plenty of food.