Check to teen with cancer marks end of Royal Oak Guns and Hoses fundraiser
Royal Oak police and firefighter volunteers raised $12,906 for a teen with cancer in their final annual Guns & Hoses benefit hockey game.
Royal Oak police Lt. Patrick Stanton and firefighter Lt. Tony Cattini founded the yearly benefit games at the John Lindell Ice Arena back in 2010.
City firefighters and police hockey players faced off each year at the ice area, but had time off because of the pandemic.
“We really appreciate the support we got from the Royal Oak community over the years,” Stanton said. “They made it possible for us to raise money for great causes.”
For their final game early this month they decided to mix it up. Police and firefighters teamed up to take on the Detroit Red Wings Alumni, who beat them 13-8 before hundreds of spectators.
Stanton and Cattini recently presented a check from the fundraiser to Lane Kleinglass, 18.
Kleinglass, a graduate of Salem High School in Canton, is fighting non-Hodgkin large B-cell lymphoma.
He is the son of former Royal Oak Fire Department firefighter and paramedic Seth Kleinglass.
An aspiring firefighter, Kleinglass has already graduated from the Schoolcraft College Fire Academy.
He has served as a cadet with the Van Buren Fire Department since 2020.
Kleinglass was set last fall to start EMT and paramedic classes when it was discovered that he had lymphoma.
Since then he has continued his fight against cancer, and has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, scans and other treatments at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
Stanton said proceeds from the last hockey game will help lane with his ongoing battle and future schooling.
“It was a great honor for the men and women of the Royal Oak police and fire departments to come together
for Lane and his family,” Stanton said. “Like his dad, he seeks a career in fire service.”
Stanton said he and others have high hopes for Lane Kleinglass.
“We are confident Lane will soon beat this cancer,” Stanton said, “resume his schooling and achieve his goal of joining our first responder family.”
Over the years, the Guns & Hoses games raised money to help a deaf boy
with diabetes so he could participate in sports and gymnastics, supported one program to aid those with autism and another that provides therapy dogs for children who need them.
Other games benefited the families of a fallen state trooper and a Madison Heights police officer who died of illness, as well as raising money for a hockey program for disabled war veterans.
During a decade’s worth
of annual fundraisers, Guns & Hoses players and supporters generated a total of $83,609 for charities throughout metro Detroit.
Stanton and Cattini moved to end the games because of other obligations and changes in their lives and careers.
“We decided this year would be the last game,” Stanton said. “I’m a year away from qualifying for retirement. But we had a great 10-year run.”