Community comes together for Kelly Lang fundraiser
Lindsay Goss photo
Local band Vaudeville Rant performs at the Kelly Lang Fundraiser on Saturday, July 6th at the Blairmore Legion.
LINDSAY GOSS
Pass Herald Reporter
The Blairmore Legion hosted a very successful a fundraiser for former local Kelly Lang, who recently was diagnosed with a stage 4 malignant frontal, Glioblastoma brain tumor.
“It was truly amazing how generous this community was,” said one of the organizers of the event, Shannon Hamilton.
Hamilton and Debra Davidson, both friends of Kathy, organized the event, which exceeded their goals in more ways than one.
The event took place on Saturday, July 6th at the Blairmore Legion.
The night included a steak, chicken or fish dinner. local muscians Tynan Groves, Kyle Raines and Cierra Shortreed opened for band Vaudeville Rant.
The night also had a silent auction, a wishing well and a 50/50 draw and raffles also part of the evening.
The night raised around $9,300 for Lang, an amount which far surpassed the goal of the organizers.
“We completely surpassed our goal for the night,” said Hamilton, who said that their original goal was to raised $3-4000.
“The support and love from people amazes me.”
The silent auction raised $5,000, and the dinner, which hosted around 60 people raised around $1,000.
The money was given to Lang the day after the fundraiser, on Sunday, July 7th.
“Kathy doesn’t deserve to go through what she is going through,” said Hamilton.
“We just wanted to help her out with some money to ease the burden.”
On January 26th, 2013, Lang was diagnosed and underwent surgery less than a week later on February 1st. The surgery removed 95 per cent of the tumor and for the remaining five per cent; she will undergo chemotherapy for another year.
Two years ago, Lang and her husband, Aaron, moved to Red Deer with their two children in order for Aaron to attend Olds College to further his career in Golf Course Management.
Kelly secured employment with Premier Integrated Technologies, a job that she enjoyed and had many successes with.
However, because of her medical condition, she was unable to work and Aaron was forced to drop his final semester of school to care for Lang and the two children.
Kelly hopes to return to work in the fall and Aaron hopes to return to school in January.
