Allen Twins Double the Joy for Christmas Without Cancer

Twin football players at Saint Rita of Cascia, Charlie and Tommy Allen, developed a game plan last summer to honor their deceased uncle Matt Allen, a one-time Mustang gridiron star who lost a hard-fought batter to cancer three years ago.

The boys watched Christmas Without Cancer come to their uncle’s rescue time and again before he died. Inspired, the seniors used their summer to honor their dad’s brother and give back to Christmas Without Cancer and founder Gerri Neylon.

Neylon thought she was seeing double when the Allen twins arrived with an idea for raising funds to help CWC help families facing cancer battles. As part of their community service effort, the Allens proposed to design, build and finish classic Adirondack chairs with all sales benefiting the families of the CWC mission. The Christ the King parish responded generously buying every chair.

Approaching St. Rita's Caritas “service to others” project like a 9-to-5 job, the 17-year old football players turned the family back lawn into a lumber yard and the garage into a woodworking shop.

Completing a project that was an investment of hundreds of summer hours to raise more than $2,000, the Allens delivered a CWC check and two shiny, finished chairs for Neylon to auction off at a future event.

"Being teenage boys, its amazing what they can accomplish after they wake up for lunch," said their mother Sue Allen, kidding her growing boys.

Their dad, Joe Allen, helped the aspiring students of architecture, design and structural engineering in building dozens of chairs before the first regular-season football was snapped.

“Christmas Without Cancer helped out my brother Matt and his family so much,” said Joe. “When the Caritas project was introduced to the boys, Christmas Without Cancer was an obvious choice as a neighborhood organization that they wanted to help."

“We were looking for something unique,” said Charlie Allen. “The first chair took about four hours to make, but, after that we really started cracking.”

As her kitchen-table initiative has grown over the years, Neylon’s mantra resonated with even more zeal.

“Pay it forward – ‘Respond to someone’s kindness to oneself by being kind to someone else.’,” said Neylon. “We are seeing young people in our communities take the support their families have gotten and try and pay it forward whenever they can. The angel who is Matt Allen sent us these boys to be his messengers on earth.”

“Our uncle is our inspiration,” said Tommy Allen.

The young men who “paid it forward” will battle at Brother Rice Friday night and sleep in Saturday morning instead of running in Saturday’s 4th Annual Christmas Without Cancer 5K Run/Walk to raise funds and begin the season of giving: Saturday 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. at Circle Park, 9700 S Homan, Evergreen Park.

“They earned it,” said Neylon. “They’ve already helped more families than anyone can realize.”

Register at www.christmaswithoutcancer.org.