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Maryville Hoops while Kids Rock Can­cer

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“You could tell there was some­thing dif­fer­ent in the air,” said Jimmy Bar­ton as he de­scribed his first ex­pe­ri­ence at #1000­Saints. For a sec­ond year, ath­let­ics part­nered with Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty’s Kids Rock Can­cer pro­gram to cre­ate an un­for­get­table night for every­one in at­ten­dance.

On Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 16, over 1,000 fans poured into the Si­mon Ath­letic Cen­ter to help sup­port Kids Rock Can­cer and both bas­ket­ball teams. With many gen­er­ous do­na­tions through­out the night, the $10,000 goal was ex­ceeded and the fi­nal count came in at $16,272.

What is Kids Rock Can­cer?

Mu­sic Ther­apy stu­dent Mariah Broeker, ju­nior, said, “First and fore­most, Kids Rock Can­cer is a pro­gram that pro­vides mu­sic ther­apy ser­vices to chil­dren of can­cer and blood-re­lated dis­or­ders free of charge.” Broeker comes in con­tact with the char­ity of­ten through vol­un­teer and in­tern­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties as well as class vis­its from some of the Kids Rock Can­cer mu­sic ther­a­pists.

Since its start in 2009, Kids Rock Can­cer has treated over 1000 pa­tients and cre­ated over 850 songs. The char­ity works with not only kids with can­cer and blood dis­or­ders, but also fam­ily mem­bers. Di­rec­tor of Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty’s Spe­cial Pro­grams Liz Haynes said, “It’s not just the child or the par­ent that goes through can­cer, but it’s the en­tire fam­ily.” Haynes said ath­let­ics was gra­cious enough to ap­proach the char­ity last year to part­ner and af­ter brain­storm­ing, “1000 was a nat­ural tie-in, be­cause the kids could per­form at half-time. It’s one thing to see the kids, but when you see them per­form it re­ally pulls at the heart strings.”

Game Time

Jimmy Barton in play against the Drury Panthers men’s basketball team. Photo courtesy of Sarah Heet.

Se­nior Alex Wolf said #1000­Saints is her fa­vorite event each year. “I get ex­cited hear­ing every­one cheer when we score a point and it’s great to have the Kids Rock Can­cer kids a part of it as well,” said Wolf. Ath­let­ics goes out of their way to make this night one of the best of the sea­son with a free t-shirt to any­one that walks in the door and a stu­dent tail­gate be­fore the games with free food.

Even though both teams fell to the Drury Pan­thers, the gym­na­sium was still full of ex­cite­ment. Bar­ton said he went into the night like it was a reg­u­lar game, but “the en­ergy was bet­ter than nor­mal with all the stu­dents and the kids singing the na­tional an­them and dur­ing half­time.” It was a night to be re­mem­bered.

Check out Kids Rock Can­cer on­line. All do­na­tions are ap­pre­ci­ated.

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