Fundraiser Rasies More Than $3,500 For Assistant Principal's Son Battling Cancer

Most sporting events have a team that wins and a team that loses.

On Friday at everyone was a winner at a student vs. faculty basketball game that raised over $3,500 for assistant principal, James Harris whose son, Jimmy, was recently diagnosed with leukemia.

Jimmy, 9, was unable to attend the game because he had undergone chemotherapy earlier in the day.  

"He's always at the games with his dad.  Just a few weeks ago I saw them riding around on the golf cart, and then I heard he had leukemia," said senior Rashawn Rembert, a guard for Sickles basketball team. "You just never know."

The entire student body showed up at Thursday's game as part of a pep rally. Most showed their support by wearing orange shirts and armbands -- the color for leukemia awareness.

"It's overwhelming, you just don't know what to feel," said Harris, the assistant principal, who attended the game with his daughter Kaitlin. "I never imagined this kind of support and each day I count my blessings and we take it day by day."

Harris said that the prognosis is good because of Jimmy's age and that they caught the disease early.  However, it will still involve more than three years of chemotherapy for his son.

The event was put together in two weeks by Laurie Greco, a leadership teacher at the school.

"When students heard about Mr. Harris's son, everyone wanted to do something," she said. "But no one knew what to do, so we all brainstormed and came up with the idea of a student and faculty basketball game."

Social studies teacher, Jim Monroe, helped Greco get the game organized. 

"Everyone came together to support Mr. Harris," he said. "We had so many people wanting to volunteer to play that we had to turn some away." 

After the initial news stunned students and faculty members everyone came together to see what they could do to show their support for Jimmy. 

"It's a wonderful idea and I'm really impressed with the enthusiasm of the students for this event," said Coach Glover who played in the game, in spite of having a bad knee.

Even if they couldn't participate in the game students found a variety of things that they could do to help support Mr. Harris.   

One student put a video on Youtube.  Another student made orange ribbons to sell to students and donated all the proceeds to "Hoops For Harris."  The Booster club sold baked goods in the lobby of the gym.

"We have the best students," said Sickles Principal, Jake Russell, who was in the starting lineup for the faculty.  "Everyone wanted to do something to support Mr. Harris and this was a great success."

The final score of the game was Students-50 Faculty-47. But it wasn't the score that would stay with the school body and faculty members who worked together to show their support for Jimmy and his family.