Shannon Routledge, who had helped organize the event, said the idea came about after Sam Lauf, whose son, Isaac Louis, died of cancer last spring, shared information about Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month in September.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could do something at the school,” Routledge said. “Our volleyball team also does Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We have pink uniforms. We’ve been doing that for quite a few years. So we thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could also do this in September?”

Donation jars were available at ticket and concession centers and youth were selling snow cones to raise money.

Isaac was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a brain cancer, in July of 2023. He went through multiple surgeries, radiation at Mayo Clinic and chemotherapy at the children’s hospital in Fargo. A third grader, Isaac died March 23 at age 9.

Jill Schramm/MDN Members of the South Prairie student body, many dressed as superheroes in honor of Isaac Louis, who was a superhero fan, cheer for a cure for pediatric brain cancer. From left to right are: front, Hayden Bohl, Tucker Lang, Kadyn Tallman, Ryder Magandy, Gabe Spokely; back, Miranda Novodvorsky, Maddie Hogue, Maya Smith, Alyssa Korgel, Zachary Korgel, Burke Rauschenberger and Junior Nicholas.

Isaac loved sports, mostly baseball, basketball, soccer and golf. He loved Spiderman, Minecraft, Fortnite and fishing and is remembered for having a big heart for others. Many of the students wore superhero costumes to honor Isaac’s love for the characters.

“Oftentimes we hear about these situations, but when it affects our community, that was, I think, a big eye opener for a lot of people in the community and how hard that was, and it really affected the kids a lot,” Routledge said. “It was a lot to process. We just kind of wanted to give them a chance to remember and honor Isaac again and keep his memory alive.”

His classmates, now fourth graders, walked the game ball out on the floor with Isaac’s mother.

Abby Mikkelson, a junior on the volleyball team, said it is important to remember Isaac and his mother and stepfather, who have very much been a part of the South Prairie community.

“It just means a lot to help a greater cause in Isaac’s memory,” Mikkelson said. “They are such a great family that you want to be there for them.”

Delaney Hankel, a senior volleyball player, said the South Prairie community is good about supporting each other.

“They are very good about coming together and supporting a good cause like this,” she said. Hankel, whose mother died of breast cancer, said she understands the personal impact cancer can have.

“It just feels amazing to come together to support anyone we can,” she said.

Lauf said it means a lot to her and her husband, Justin, that the South Prairie community would want to honor not just their son but other children battling cancer or who have lost their lives to cancer.

“That’s huge. It’s not just about Isaac, but Isaac is kind of the catalyst for it,” Lauf said. “He impacted so many people at 9 years old.”

When she was contacted by friends about holding an event to honor Isaac, she was beyond moved.

“For them to reach out, even though my husband and I aren’t affiliated with the school directly anymore, since my husband moved to a different school and our son passed away. Having them still be like, ‘Hey, you’re still family. You’re still part of the Royals community’ was huge,” she said.

Justin Lauf, who now teaches in Minot, previously taught and coached girls basketball at South Prairie. The Laufs have two daughters, 2 and 5.

Sam Lauf added there are other children in the Minot area with pediatric cancer, including a few with medulloblastoma, which makes it even more important to fundraise for charities that put their funds to good use, care about children and actually want to find a cure.

Lauf had suggested The Cure Starts Now to receive the South Prairie donations because of the support the organization provided her family.

“We’ve actually become ambassadors for The Cure Starts Now,” Lauf said. As ambassadors, the Laufs help with fundraising and awareness.

“If I can bring any kind of awareness to childhood cancer and why we need help researching to figure out where medulloblastoma comes from, how kids get it, how we can cure it, I will do that. I will fight tooth and nail to find out why, when and how we can get rid of it,” Sam Lauf said.

Jim Getgey, marketing director for The Cure Starts Now, said less than 6% – and at times as little as 4% – of the government’s funding for cancer research annually is directed toward childhood cancers, with even less going to pediatric brain cancer specifically.

Yet many cancer experts believe that research directed at pediatric brain cancer may offer clues to curing other forms of cancer, both adult and pediatric, according to The Cure Starts Now.

“It’s tough to get funding without the support of independent foundations because they’re the ones raising the money,” Getgey said. “That’s why it’s so critical that there’s groups like The Cure Starts Now out there.”

The Cure Starts Now was spearheaded 17 years ago by a family whose 7-year-old daughter lost her life to brain cancer.

“The Cure Starts Now Foundation has since then funded and raised over $34 million worth of research and support with their collaborative partners. There are 50 chapters across three countries,” Getgey said. “We started with one family and now we have thousands of families that are participating in helping the effort.”

Getgey said support from national sporting events and large fundraisers are wonderful, but small events and family involvement can make just as much of a difference.

“It does take a little bit more work when you’re dealing with small fundraisers, but those are critical to the advancement of curing cancer,” he said.

Some data collected by The Cure Starts Now shows:

– Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death from childhood cancer, accounting for 24% percent of cancer-related deaths in 1997 among persons up to 19.

– There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making effective treatment very complicated.

– One in 330 children in the U.S. will develop cancer by age 20. On the average, 12,500 children are diagnosed with cancer each year.

– One child out of five diagnosed with cancer dies.

Given those statistics, the South Prairie community plans to keep on fighting for more awareness and funding.

“We’re going to try to look into making it a bigger and better event next year, and we hope that other schools will maybe follow suit and do the same thing,” Routledge said.