‘Knowing we helped puts a smile on my face’
Teen raises funds, puts together gift card wreaths for Christmas Without Cancer
The chances are good next school year that St. Rita Principal Sante Iacovelli may have Orland Park’s Evan Blake in his office for a little while.
It won’t be a disciplinary meeting.
Far fromit.
The freshman-to-be will be asking for some support for whatever venture he embarks on in the name of charity in memory of his late cousin, Nick Miceli. After all, Blake already has been to St. Michael School Principal Paul Smith’s office a few times for the same reason.
When Miceli died just shy of his third birthday in May 2019 due to a cancer known as alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, it affected Blake.
That winter, he wanted to do something in his cousin’s honor, so he held a toy drive for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Although the Blake family never tallied up the total amount of toys, Evan’s mother, Robyn, said the proceeds filled her minivan.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Evan to rethink collecting toys in 2020.
Instead, he got involved in a charity that helped the Miceli family out when they were going through Nick’s ordeal. Evan decided to channel his efforts to the Evergreen Park-based Christmas Without Cancer organization, which provides holiday gifts and basic necessities to area families who have members stricken with cancer.
Evan said that Christmas Without Cancer is a great organization where he had previously picked up some service hours assisting with the group’s 5K race and Queen ofHearts promotions.
“Just knowing we helped them puts a smile onmy face,” he said.
Founder and President GerriNeylon and her staff have come upwith severalways to help and one of the ideas is to present families with wreaths made up of gift cards to help with prescriptions, paying bills, home maintenance, groceries and other needs.
That’s where the Blakes came in.
Evan, an eighth grader, and 10 of his friends from St. Michael School in Orland Park spent a recent Saturday putting these wreaths together.
The four-sport athlete had no trouble finding teammates and classmates to help with this venture.
“Theywanted to help,” Evan Blake said. Blake and fellow students Joe Spano, Michael Flynn, Ryan Ward, Gavin Obrochta, Gavin Weiss, Aidan McGovern, Emmett McCarthy, Charlie Kohlstedt, Louis Kulekowskis and Jack Palmer put together 15 wreaths on Saturday and presented them to a family not far from home.
Renee Copeland, the organization’s vice president, and the small army of students took four vehicles to Tonia Bellik’s home approximately eight blocks away from the Blake home and lined up on her sidewalk. Bellik has three children and has cancer. Her sister, Tiffany, had the job of making sure itwas a surprise.
Copeland said it was a huge surprise for Tonia and was glad the young men were able to see her receive a wreath, a check and flowers.
“It was super special,” Copeland said. “That’s the best part of what we do. For themto be able to witness the joy ofhelping another family in need is honestly the best part of all of this.
“Unfortunately, because of COVID, everything is different with our deliveries. Itwas special the boys were able to do that. She knew some of the boys from the neighborhood and baseball events too — thatwas also special.”
Evan’s online fundraiser for the drive ended Wednesday and was close to raising his $6,000 goal for Christmas Without Cancer.
Having young people participating in a project like this impresses Copeland.
“I like having the younger generation involved,” she said. “This is the first time we had an eighth grader make aGoFundMe page and handle all the fundraising. That’s really unique. It’s something we don’t see a lot of. I am hoping this inspires other kids to get creative and come up with fresh fundraising ideas for us.”
Evan plans on keeping things going when he attends St. Rita next year and says he has no problem talking and planning with adults.
“It’s fine,— I’m used to talking to adults,” he said. “During the toy drive, I talked to a lot of people at the hospital. It’s not that difficult.”