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Dinner, Auction to Benefit Roosevelt Students Fighting Cancer, Injured in Car Crash

Families of students Zach Marlow and Ryan Anderson will benefit from Wednesday's event

“Roosevelt family” is a well-known catchphrase at – one that will be exemplified during a benefit dinner Wednesday.

Students in the Riders Taking Action class want to help two of their Roosevelt family members by raising funds through a spaghetti dinner and Chinese auction set for 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Roosevelt cafeteria. Tickets will be $10 at the door.

Proceeds will be divided between the families of Ryan Anderson, a junior who was diagnosed with bone cancer in early April, and , a senior who was critically injured in a .

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The benefit dinner is the brainchild of the 24 students enrolled in this semester’s Riders Taking Action class, taught by advanced placement U.S. history teacher Chris Hibbs.

Heidi Myers, student activities coordinator at Roosevelt, said RTA is a semesterlong community service class that earns participants one social studies or history credit.

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“It is a service-oriented class during which students work with various local organizations to see the real-life potential to be involved in community service – to make a difference in the communities in which we live,” Myers said.

Students – most of whom are seniors – are charged with completing 40 hours of community service at one of 20 organizations they learn about at the beginning of the semester. Frequent recipients of student volunteerism include Habitat for Humanity of Portage County, Happy Day School, area nursing homes, elementary schools and Headstart programs.

Myers said students also participate in various fundraising events to help local organizations. One current example is a pie-baking contest the students are holding to raise the remaining funds to have a pantry shed built for by students in Roosevelt’s remodeling and construction class.

The final component of the class is that students must work as a team to choose and carry out one large class project. The Anderson/Marlow Benefit Dinner is this semester’s class project.

 “The students take the lead on these projects,” Hibbs said. “I just try to guide them and help out as much as I can.”

It was the class that decided to hold a Chinese auction during Wednesday’s dinner. Hibbs said RTA students visited local businesses to solicit donations for the 17 to 20 themed baskets they are creating for the auction.

Students will serve the spaghetti, salad and breadsticks alongside employees from Aramark, the district’s food service provider, who will make the dinner items. Roosevelt staff and students have been asked to donate side dishes and desserts.

Hibbs said his students are already getting positive feedback from their benevolent act. “The families have been very, very appreciative,” he said.

Hibbs did not know if Ryan Anderson would be attending the dinner, as he is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatment.

Zach Marlow will attend the benefit, said his mother, Laura Marlow, who is checking him out of the traumatic brain injury unit at Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Institute in Cuyahoga Falls for the evening.

Zach was transferred to Edwin Shaw on April 29 after spending six weeks at Akron City Hospital, most of that time in the intensive care unit.

Marlow said her son is now “walking with assistance, talking and is fine intellectually … He’s still not able to use either hand. He’ll be seeing a shoulder specialist for nerve damage that’s affected his whole right arm, and he had pins removed from his left hand last Friday and is receiving physical therapy.”

Those interested in making a last-minute, tax-deductible donation for the auction can contact Hibbs at 330-676-8700.

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