Sydenham Tackles Cancer: Second Quarter

Last September, a group of Sydenham High School alumni put together “Sydenham Tackles Cancer”, a fundraising dance that raised funds for the Mike and Andy fund. Mike Woodcox and Andy Green were both running backs for the Sydenham Golden Eagles in the ‘90s, and they both died of cancer while still in their 20s.

Last year’s dance raised almost $5,000, which was donated to the Regional Cancer Centre in Kingston.

This year, the small organizing committee, Karl Hammer, Matt Rennie and Stephanie Lauren, are hoping to raise over $5,000 at the dance, which will be held on Friday, September 19, starting at 8 pm.

“Bauder Road” will be performing again this year, as will another stalwart local band “Still Standing”. The bands should be familiar to local residents, since they both played at Canada Day this year. “For the bands, it is also about remembering Mike and Andy, because almost all of the band members went to SHS themselves,” said Karl Hammer.

The dance is a 19 and over event, and will be licensed by the LLBO. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Organizers are calling this year’s dance “The Second Quarter”, in keeping with the football theme, and to issue a challenge to the community.

“We are planning to run these events for four years, for the four quarters in a football game” said Karl Hammer, “and we hope to raise a little more each year. After four years we’ll look at it again to see where we want to go from there.

Tickets are on sale at the Sydenham One Stop and other local locations. For further information people can email sydenhamtacklescancer@gmail.com or look around for the graphic posters, designed by Dan Kerr, that are up all over the region.

Watson Bus Lines has donated a bus for the event. At the end of the night it take people to Harrowsmith and then follow Road 38 to Kingston.