Local lacrosse players raise $1,500 for friend fighting leukemia
By: Kyle Moylan
ALLENTOWN Don’t ever underestimate the power of a group of teenage girls with an ice cream cone in one hand and a bucket in the other. Jeff Hanford certainly never will after seeing his Allentown High School girls lacrosse team in action outside Swal Dairy on May 3. Put a great group of kids together with a great cause and great results follow.
"Our kids were out in the street that night with buckets asking for donations (for Becca Wishbow, a teammate with leukemia)," Mr. Hanford noted. "We had to yell at them to get out of the street and away from the cars. They were going up to everyone and ended up raising about $1,500. It was incredible what they were able to raise just that night."
This was the final push on a day set aside to honor and raise money for the 17-year-old Millstone girl. Between raffles, T-shirt sales, donations and a 25 percent cut of the profits at Swal Dairy, Mr. Hanford estimates the total amount raised at between $13,000 and $15,000.
"It’s hard to say for sure at this time because there are still individual donations coming in," Hanford said. "Even the Hopewell Valley team contacted us and are going to send a check. Even people that never met Becca want to help her."
Most of the thanks outside the Allentown community, however, goes to Mr. Hanford’s favorite opposing coach and team. Melissa Hanford, Jeff’s wife, is the coach of the Robbinsville High girls lacrosse team. Becca played for Allentown last year, so the Hanfords decided to find a way to help when they found out she was diagnosed with leukemia.
Because of the proximity of the two schools and the unique situation of the two coaches, the Hanfords thought it would be fun and profitable to try and create a rivalry between the two schools. In fact, when asked about a printing mistake on the T-shirts designed to commemorate "Becca Wishbow Day" it listed the date as May 3, 2003 Mr. Hanford quickly added, "That’s the day the rivalry started. That’s our story and we are sticking to it (laughs)."
For an old rival, however, Mr. Hanford was showing a lot of love.
"You can’t say enough about the contributions of Robbinsville," he said. "A good portion of the money raised came from T-shirt sales and I think all of their players bought one. They were great. Not too many people would want to play in the situation they were put in." After all, how many people really wanted to see Allentown lose on Becca Wishbow day? There were plans to have Becca walk out with the two teams before the start of the game.
"Her father told us she was too tired from her treatments, but then she shocked the heck out of us by showing up for the final minutes (of what was an Allentown 9-3 win)," Mr. Hanford said.
"She looks great and was happy to see all of the kids. As the playoffs get closer, she wants to make it out to a couple more games."
Becca was unable to accompany them, but the members of both teams got on their buses and went to Swal Dairy after the game for ice cream. Thus the slogan on one of the two T-shirts for sale on the day: "Helping Becca lick Leukemia."
"This is really important," Allentown Athletic Director Brian Irwin said. "Kids have to learn to help people in need." According to Mr. Irwin, a fundraising night by the girls’ basketball team in January raised about $10,000 for Becca Wishbow. And when the teenage girls showed up with their ice cream cones and buckets on May 3, the donations kept coming.
For information on how to make a donation to Becca Wishbow, contact Jeff Hanford by email at [email protected].