Cancer fundraising unites Penn State football players with Oregon family
By Cory Giger,cgiger@altoonamirror.comUNIVERSITY PARK - The coincidental connection is amazing, you could even say spooky. Definitely destined. It started with one of the worst words known to man - cancer - and continues with a collaborative, team effort that brought one family closer than it ever could have imagined to college football players who live 2,675 miles away.
Jon Willie, his wife and two children live in Happy Valley, and they are huge Penn State football fans. OK, who in Happy Valley doesn't love the Nittany Lions?
Time out. Not that Happy Valley.
This one is a small city in Oregon, far, far removed from Penn State's campus in the region nicknamed the same. Ducks and Beavers are the mascots of choice for the Willies' neighbors, not Nittany Lions.
"We had no idea that Penn State was even in an area called Happy Valley," Jon Willie said Friday during the school's annual Lift for Life charity event. "It is amazing."
He said that word - amazing - a couple of more times during a brief conversation, and each instance it was in reference to the Penn State football team. Not, however, the team's play on the field.
Willie used the word to describe the fundraising efforts, the hard work and dedication that PSU players have put into helping raise money and awareness for kidney cancer.
Jon Willie had kidney cancer - the key word being had - and is now in remission. He underwent surgery in December of 2005 when he was 36, and the cancerous kidney was removed.
"It is very much so a life-threatening cancer," Willie said. "Mine happened to stay within the encasement sack of the kidney, but once it gets outside that it causes havoc, and the chances of survival at that point are very slim."
Willie's family already knew a lot about the disease by the time he was diagnosed. A year before, his father-in-law, Alan Doody, had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and has beaten it. Also, one of Doody's nephews had died of the rare, difficult-to-diagnose disease.
The Willies did some research and found out the Penn State football team is one of the largest and most successful fundraising groups for kidney cancer in the country. They learned that former Nittany Lion player Scott Shirley, who lost his father to the disease, had started a football-based group called Uplifting Athletes that was raising money for kidney cancer research.
Shirley brainstormed the Lift for Life workout event, which debuted in 2003 and has been a summer staple since. The seventh annual gathering was held Friday at Holuba Hall on campus, giving fans a chance to mingle with players and watch them take part in grueling exercises for the sake of charity.
"Penn State football is the only thing out there raising awareness for kidney cancer, and they're the biggest fundraiser," Carol Willie said. "We are very grateful to the team."
The Willie family lobbied before Congress in Washington D.C. in 2006 on behalf of additional kidney cancer research and spending. That same year, the family reached out to 10 Penn State football players and wrote letters thanking them for their help with the cause.
Only one player, receiver Jordan Norwood, responded at the time.
"Jordan will always be our favorite guy," Carol Willie said. "We had no idea who Jordan was. We were given a list of 10 names of players to write to, and it was football season and we had no idea how busy Jordan would be. But he wrote us a letter back, and it's because of Jordan that the connection is here today."
"After Jordan's letter, we got in contact with him and kept writing," said 11-year-old Eric Willie, who was wearing Norwood's white No. 24 jersey Friday. "After games, on Mondays, we would always write letters back."
Norwood, who's now in the NFL, showed up at Friday's Lift for Life and said the connection with the Willie family "means a lot" to him.
"To see the effect you have on peoples' lives and the effect they have on their community out in Happy Valley, it's just a great opportunity to get the word out on this unfortunate disease," Norwood said.
The Willie's letter-writing campaign to the players has continued over the years, with the family getting more and more responses from players.
"We're in contact with a lot of them, and they've become a big part of our family," Carol Willie said.
"It's really nice to get to know them," Eric Willie said. "We just really like what they're doing, and it's great to know someone is out there helping you."
The Willie family attended Lift for Life for the first time in 2007 and has been back each year since. They also attended the Blue-White Game in April.
Alison Willie, 14, came up with an idea to knit blue and white scarves that could be sold for charity, and she recruited family members and friends to take up the activity. The family sold 110 scarves and raised $2,200 during Blue-White weekend and had a display at Friday's event, as well.
Back home, the family watches every Penn State football game on TV and even ordered the Big Ten Network to make sure it could catch every contest. They see several players wearing orange wrist bands in support of the kidney cancer cause.
"In most of those cases, we've connected with that player on a personal level," Carol Willie said.
Getting to know some of the players off the field has been a great reward for the family.
"I can't impress more about how really great these guys are," Jon Willie said. "It's just amazing, especially the ones that have contacted us. It's just unbelievable, and they're great guys. They're normal guys that have gone out of their way."
Lift for Life always has been and remains an event organized by a small group of Penn State football players, who devote a large amount of time to the kidney cancer cause. Seeing their efforts reach a family across the country makes all the work worthwhile.
"It's tremendous, and you feel so good about what you do because someone so far across the country hears about what you do, and they have the same passion as we do about it," said receiver Brett Brackett, one of the officers for PSU's Uplifting Athletes chapter.
"Sadly, they've been touched by kidney cancer in their family, and one of the things that we do is try to help people like that. For them to be able to know what we do at Penn State and to come all the way out here to lend a helping hand, it means so much to us."
Seeing the impact the players have had on people off the football field also means a lot to the university, which prides itself on sports with honor and integrity.
"The Willie relationship is the epitome of the kind of impact that our student-athletes can have on a community," Penn State athletic director Tim Curley said. "The fact that it's on the opposite end of the United States just goes to show you they can have a positive influence on peoples' lives."
Cory Giger can be reached at 949-7031 and cgsports12@aol.com.
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07-11-09 10:53 AM
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Great Story!...I to have been touched by Cancer and this is what cancer victims and their families need. Support, Support, Support! Great job guys!
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