36 Thursday, September 26, 2024 BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com
Sporting News
BATTLE
CREEK
SHELLY KEHRLE-SULSER
Executive Editor
Everybody was a winner
Wednesday, Sept. 18 when a group
of sports parents hosted an event dur-
ing and after the volleyball games
with Harper Creek in which both
schools combined efforts to help the
family of Pennfield freshman volley-
ball coach, Hannah Belote.
Belote underwent a bone marrow
transplant Aug. 30 as follow-up
treatment to leukemia that was diag-
nosed back in May.
Belote, who was able to attend the
event with her family – sitting safely
away from people in a cordoned off
corner of the gym – was declared
cancer free on Aug. 9 after spending
most of her summer at University of
Michigan hospital.
The fundraiser will help her cover
not only health care costs but other
living expenses related to the pause
in her household income so she can
be cared for during her continued
recovery by her husband, Cody, said
event committee member, Leslie
Wiley.
The Block Out Cancer fund raiser
involved a silent auction, 50/50
raffle, bake sale and the sales of tee
shirts in the color orange represent-
ing leukemia awareness.
“It was amazing,” said Wiley. “To
see the number of people that came
from the community to that event, to
look out into the stands and see all
the orange out there gave me goose-
bumps, it was pretty powerful.”
Wiley said the fund raiser was a
huge success.
“I don’t have the final numbers but
the silent auction, we had so many
donations from the community and
everything went from there,” she
said. “The Yeti raffle was a success,
the 50/50 raffle. It’s going to help
tremendously.”
Belote said the last week in August
that she expected to be in the hospi-
Block Out Cancer event for Pennfield coach a huge success
Hannah Belote’s freshman volleyball players were excited to see their coach
after she spent weeks at University of Michigan hospital receiving treatment
including a bone marrow transplant in her fight against leukemia. She and
her family appeared at the Sept. 18 Block Out Cancer event at Pennfield
High School. (Shopper News photo by Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)Pennfield High School JV middle
blocker Jenna Wiley blocks a Harper
Creek volley during the Block Out
Cancer event Wednesday. (Shopper
News photo by Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)tal for several more weeks but as it
turned out, she was able to go home
on Sept. 16.
Wiley was surprised that the
Belotes were able to attend.
“We were excited that Hannah got
to attend and her boys got to partici-
pate,” said Wiley, “in the drawing
so that was pretty special. She really
wanted to be there to see it so she
put a mask on and we brought her in
the back door so she could just enter
from the gym right there and stay
safe away from people.”
Though Hannah Belote did not
address the crowd or the volleyballMany of the attendees at the Sept. 18 volleyball games helped support the
Block Out Cancer event for the Belote family. (Shopper News photo by Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)See CANCER on 37