Kentlake High community members raised over $3,000 on March 28 in honor of Rachael Butler’s battle against Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
The school hosted an auction and dessert hour, which included 52 baskets that were assembled by fourth period classes at Kentlake. A basket with a Seahawks theme brought in the highest price of the evening, selling for $400. Overall the school raised $2,921 by selling the baskets and $653 in ticket sales. The money raised from the event will be donated to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Butler explained her cancer as, “kind of a cross between leukemia and lymphoma. It’s a rare one.”
So far, Butler has completed the chemotherapy portion of her treatment and next will be undergoing a bone barrow transplant using her own stem cells.
The auction was the idea of leadership teacher Rick Chance and school cashier Kathy Adderson. Chance said that they wanted to do something to show support for their fellow staff member as she fights the disease.
Chance then took the idea to his leadership students who then took on planning the event.
“She (Butler) was always so sweet,” said Aimy Linderman, a senior in the leadership class.
Linderman said she stepped up to be a student leader for planning the event because she, too, knew she wanted to do something to help.
Inspiration for the auction format came from a previous event, a breast cancer awareness auction, the school held last fall.
“It was amazing, it went so well. It was huge,” Linderman said of the March 28 auction. “It was pretty cool to see all the people who came to support us and being able to look at all the success we had in her honor.”
The decision to donate the money raised to SCCA was Butler’s choice — they wanted to let her decide because the event was all about honoring her, Linderman said.
Butler chose SCCA because it is where she will be receiving the transplant portion of her treatment.
“It’s an unbelievable place. I’m very happy with picking SCCA, they touch a lot of lives,” said Linderman.
Linderman has worked for the school district for over 15 years, the last five of those have been at Kentlake.
“So far it’s all going good,” Linderman said. “Part of what has helped it be so good has been the support from the school and the kids…every time I turn around they’re doing something.”
Members of the community have also created shirts in support of Butler and have been wearing bracelets and displaying ribbons in support of fighting cancer.
Butler expects to be done with treatment around July, after which her care will be transferred back to Valley Medical Center, where she did chemo, and she’ll be going in for monitoring appointments. Butler is planning on returning to Kentlake in November.
“The hardest thing for me is that I’m not there,” Butler said. “I love what I do, I love my school and I love my kids.”
Reach Katherine Smith ksmith@covingtonreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.
