Community reaches out to help boy's fight

The music was great, the food was aplenty and the kid’s zone was busy all throughout the night, and all for a very good cause – to help a little boy in his fight against leukemia.

PLfortheCure, a group of women who have been raising money all year as part of their commitment to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, took time to reach out and help one of their own last weekend.

Jeremiah Pinckney is a 5-year-old boy who was diagnosed April 28 with acute lymphocytic leukemia. And while he is one of more than 3,000 children who will be diagnosed this year, to this community he is special because he is one of their own.

Jeremiah has captured the hearts of the PLfortheCure members – he was adopted as their honorary member and they ran in his honor during the 2009 Sacramento Cowtown Marathon event earlier this month.

“We hope his journey is a short one,” said Kate Cordell, one of the PLfortheCure members.

The team members wanted to reach out and help Jeremiah even beyond the more than $9,000 they had already contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – $4,000 of which came from the Plumas Lake community.

“While we were glad to have raised that money for the society, we wanted to do something to help out Jeremiah directly,” said Mary Jane Kelley, another group member.

Didra ,Jeremiah’s mom, said she is very grateful for their outreach. While most people believe these types of medical treatments are covered by insurance, families faced with these illnesses find they have much more than just medical bills piling up. Even with full health care coverage, there are still co-pays, gas costs to and from the hospital for treatment, lost work time for all the medical appointments, and the need for in-home care when the child is too sick or immune-compromised to be in a public daycare or school.

While Didra works as a nurse by profession, she has been off work since Jeremiah’s diagnosis and all the extra expenses that can crop up during a lengthy medical treatment are starting to accumulate.

“It was a shock, which even brought me awareness as a nurse to this disease,” said Didra, reflecting on finding out about Jeremiah’s illness.  “I am just so thankful for what everyone is doing to help out.”

And help out they did. Jeremiah's story brought forward nearly a dozen local business and residents to offer their help in putting together a concert in the park, which took place Sunday at Eufay Woods Park. Key contributors to the even included:

• The Chris Gardner Band, which provided the concert;
• The Plumas Lake Mom’s Group and Wendy Pimentel, who organized the kid’s zone and brought in a Velcro wall;
• Yuba Gardens School, which loaned the stage for the concert;
• Dennis Thomsen's Balloon Entertainment, which donated balloon animals all night;
• Kate Cordell, who painted dozens of little faces;
• Plumas Lake Bouncehouse , which donated one of its houses;
• First 5 of Yuba County, which contributed the bubbles, play dough and textile tables;
• Elliots Scrapbooking, which brought a Halloween craft for the little ones; and
• Twin City Trophies ,which donating a plaque in Jeremiah’s honor.

The money raised will go a long way in helping Jeremiah and his family through this rough patch. Jeremiah has a long road ahead of him and is currently still going through extensive treatments at UC Davis Medical Center.

 He is scheduled to finish treatments in December, at which time he will still face three years of maintenance treatment. But through it all he has endured with very little complaints and faces an 85 percent survival rate, his mother said.

“The event was a great success.  The best thing of all was how willing everyone was to offer a cash donation to Jeremiah and his family,” said Whitney Pimentel, PLforthecure team member. “I love Plumas Lake because of the great sense of community.  Most people don't have a lot of extra money right now, but everyone donated or helped in any way they could.”

Those interested or who were unable to attend the event but would like to donate to help out Jeremiah can do so by contacting Mary Jane Kelley at 742-1351 or maryjane@wandkrealestate.com. 

Plumas Lake Life correspondent Michele Perrault can be reached at 483-3664 or e-mail her at mperrault@plumaslakelife.com