Ball helps young boy with leukemia
Throughout January, San Benito High School students and staff
have been trying to get the community involved with raising money
to help offset the medical costs for 3-year-old Robbie Cabrera, a
boy who is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cabrera,
diagnosed in August, was chosen as the beneficiary of the annual
Benefit Drive and Dance, which is put on by the students and staff
at the high school.
Ball helps young boy with leukemia
Throughout January, San Benito High School students and staff have been trying to get the community involved with raising money to help offset the medical costs for 3-year-old Robbie Cabrera, a boy who is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cabrera, diagnosed in August, was chosen as the beneficiary of the annual Benefit Drive and Dance, which is put on by the students and staff at the high school.
SBHS Student Activities Director Juan Robledo said that as of Monday $6,700 had been counted and the counting will continue. The collection will end Friday (Jan. 30th).
Associated Student Body students had a chance to meet with Robbie during the fundraising efforts, though the little boy was not able to attend the ball because he was ill with pneumonia.
This year’s Benefit Ball took place Jan. 23. Because Cabrera loves Thomas the Tank Engine, “The theme of the dance [was] ‘The Little Train That Could,'” said Jessica Frey, the ASB vice president.
Frey, who was in charge of the Benefit Ball, started setting up right after school in the O’Donnell Gym. The students used a painted cardboard Thomas the Tank Train as a picture backdrop, and the students offered it to the Cabrera family so that they could set it up in their living room for Robbie to play with at home.
Leading up to the ball, students did a variety of fundraisers. Sarah Bartholf, commissioner of community affairs at SBHS, was in charge of the Benefit Drive. Once the students returned from their holiday break, they started fundraising. Students had pledge sheets to take into the community to solicit donations.
Although it has been challenging to raise money, Bartholf said, “We are trying our best.”
She announced a week before the dance that they had collected $1,580.
Bartholf attributes their difficulty to the economy and the fact that the school had several drives before their winter break, including a food and toy drive.
In addition to the pledge sheets, students and community members could buy cardboard trains to decorate the gym for the dance. The trains sold for $20 a piece and the students sold 40 of them. The donors were allowed to put their own message to Cabrera on each train. The students held a fundraiser at Papa Murphy’s on Jan. 22, with 25 percent of each sale that night went to Cabrera’s cause. They also held a raffle for a Wii, and sold $2 tickets in the rain, and collected donations outside of the Nob Hill grocery store.
“I have about 100 students and not a day goes by without them asking about Robbie, staff included,” said Irma Cabrera-Albright, Cabrera’s aunt and a resource specialist and teacher at SBHS.
Her family has seen an outpouring of love throughout the community, Albright said. The family has also received donations from people from as far away as San Francisco and San Diego.
Although Cabrera is undergoing an aggressive regiment of chemotherapy, Albright explained that when he goes to his treatment appointments, wearing a Superman shirt, he tells the nurses “I am not afraid of that – I am strong; real strong.”
Cabrera’s determination is boostered not only by the support of this family but also the support of the community.
“We feel blessed for a boy, a dance, and the love of a community,” said William Cabrera, Robbie’s uncle.
