The Westerville North High School community raised $2,820 for the Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation as part of its seventh annual Faith’s Spirit Week and third annual Strike Out Cancer fundraiser on April 29.
The foundation, which supports families with children receiving cancer treatments at Nationwide Children's Hospital, is named in honor of Faith Pruden, a Westerville student who passed away in 2010 from brain cancer at age 7.
With its fundraising efforts this year, the school has raised a total of $15,636.95 since 2017.
As part of the festivities, students and staff dressed up to different themes during Faith’s Spirit Week. During the Strike Out Cancer event on April 29, the Warrior softball and baseball teams wore commemorative jerseys in their matchups against Olentangy, Westerville Central and Hilliard Davidson to raise money for the foundation. Special guests threw the ceremonial first pitches during the games.
The 2024 Strike Out Cancer softball and baseball tournament will be held on April 27 at the high school.
About Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation and Strike Out Cancer event
Faith was a first-grader at Emerson Elementary who passed away in 2010 from brain cancer. Before she passed, she asked her teacher, Mary Taylor, to make sure she was never forgotten. To help keep this promise, Taylor began the Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation (FFPF). Teacher Lisa Dapoz and community advocate Nancy McFarland both met Faith through Mary and immediately set out to help Faith enjoy her remaining months. This included attending Prom at Westerville North and meeting singer Taylor Swift.
Funds raised by the FFPF are used to support families with children receiving cancer treatments at Nationwide Children's Hospital. FFPF helps with rent/mortgage payments, pays household bills and car payments, provides gift cards for goods and gas, and donates themed-books for the kids on Floor 12. FFPF adopted a room at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio and provides food, pjs, games, and iPads to the kids getting treatments and their siblings who are staying with the families. Additionally, donations go toward two college scholarships given out every year in Faith's honor. One scholarship is for any student who attended a Westerville school for at least one year and is going to study the arts, cosmetology, the culinary arts, or firefighting (all things that Faith loved). The other scholarship is for a cancer survivor.