Griswold creates memory for one family

 The Iowa Hall of Pride Challenge was about more than two teams playing in a scrimmage Friday night.

For one family, it meant so much more.

The Griswold and Fremont-Mills girls basketball teams gathered together Friday night to help raise money for Caps For Kids, as well as BrookLynne Peterson, a first grader who has pediatric kidney cancer.

Peterson’s father, Rob, a long time resident of Griswold, said the gesture shows the kind of character often seen in southwest Iowa with small communities.

“It’s a very emotional time. The kind of support we’ve gotten from the school and the community is unbelievable,” Rob said. “This is one of the reasons we choose to live in a small town because of the kind of people it possesses.”

During halftime of the Hall of Pride game, both teams gathered on the court as BrookLynne and her family were presented with a check of $3,560 from Griswold girls basketball coach Jeff Koenck, as part of a Change Wars competition by the schools in the Griswold district.

“It was about as amazing as it gets,” Koenck said. “The student body here at our high school, middle school kids, both elementaries, really did a good job of embracing this service project and they came together and raised more money than I could have ever dreamed of.”

Also during the halftime, the Griswold team presented BrookLynne with an autographed Caps for Kids hat by pop singer Justin Bieber.

Caps for Kids is a non-profit organization that gives autographed hats to kids who have lost their hair from medical treatment. The autographs can come from athletes, entertainers or any celebrity.

According to her father Rob, BrookLynne was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumor Aug. 13. 

She had surgery to remove the tumor less than a week later and after some radiation treatment, she is now going through chemo therapy.

Wilms’ tumor, according to the National Institute of Health, is a rare kidney cancer as it causes a tumor in either one or both kidneys.

The average age of diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society, is 3-to-4 years and it’s less common for children as they grow older. 

There are about 500 new cases of Wilms tumor each year, according to ACS. 

“On Aug. 12, we didn’t know she had cancer,” Rob said. “When you have a doctor tell you that, you don’t want to believe it at first. That’s something you read about in the paper.”

BrookLynne did have to return to the hospital for a second surgery, but the family was informed that it wasn’t unusual for that. Since then, BrookLynne has had a CT scan and no new tumors showed up. She will receive a yearly CT scan to ensure that the cancer doesn’t return.

BrookLynne receives treatment every three weeks, according to her father.

“She’s looking forward to her hair growing back and getting back to business as usual,” BrookLynne’s father said.

The Hall of Pride game is nothing new for Griswold as they participated last year, winning a $1,000 service award for their “Tigers Txt Responsibly.”

“This year, we wanted to make it more close to home, more personal,” Koenck said.

Koenck needed permission from a child life specialist, who in turn asked the family for permission to do the Caps for Kids for Peterson.

When given the clear, Koenck asked BrookLynne to name some of her favorite celebrities, which included Bieber.

“Caps for Kids was generous enough to be able to reach out to him and have him sign [the hat],” Koenck said.

Rob said his kids don’t have any Bieber posters up at home, but that will likely change after this.

“With young girls, it depends on which way the wind is blowing,” Peterson said. “Lot of Justin Bieber music on the iPods.”

Griswold raised additional money during the game as part of gate attendance, as well as during certain points of the game. 

Whenever either team made a three-pointer, the Griswold cheerleaders would seek free will donations from those in attendance. 

The money raised will go a long way for the Petersons as it will go towards transportation expenses and will also come in handy if the family needs to stay overnight in Omaha.

“We tend to leave the van running quite a bit now,” Peterson said.

Koenck said it is a possibility they try and do more for the Peterson family at a later date during the season.