Fundraisers to benefit child with rare disease

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Two fundraisers are planned to benefit 1-year-old Isiah Washburn of Newport, the son of Jennie Ireland and Josh Washburn, who has been diagnosed with Hurler syndrome.

According to Isiah’s Web site, “This disease is very rare, incurable and fatal without immediate treatment.”

Only two hospitals in the U.S. treat the disease, so Isiah will be spending six months in North Carolina while he is receiving chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at Duke University Medical Center.

Information gleaned from the Internet indicates the inherited syndrome prevents the body from making a specific enzyme that breaks down sugar molecules, resulting in devastating attacks on the body’s organs, which can lead to malformations and even death.

To help everyone through this difficult time, local businesses, family and friends have held – and continue to hold – several benefits for Isiah and his parents.

Sherry Davis reports two team openings remain for the second annual MacGyver Golf Scramble beginning with a 9 a.m. shotgun start Saturday, Oct. 4, at J.W. Parks Golf Course in Pittsfield.

The entry fee of $200 per team includes greens fees, carts, a continental breakfast, registration gift package and a luncheon after the event. The rain date is Sunday, Oct. 12.

Tournament registration can be made by mailing a check to The Isiah Fund, Davis Egg Farms, P.O. Box 127, Newport 04953.

More information is available by calling Davis at 852-1281, Mike Tozier at 416-8600 or Chris Ireland at 341-1420.

Carole Green of Plymouth wrote about the next fundraiser for The Isiah Fund, a benefit supper.

Green wrote that the all homemade meal, consist of baked beans, chop suey, macaroni and cheese casserole, coleslaw, potato salad, pickles, yeast rolls and dessert will be served 4:30-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Masonic Lodge Hall in Newport.

Hosts are Norma Leighton, Carole and Ron Green and Sherry and Kevin Davis, and tickets are $6 for adults, $3 for children.

Entertainment for the benefit will be provided by Ron Green and The Late Edition band.

If you cannot attend but want to help, donations for The Isiah Fund can be left at any Merrill Bank location or mailed to Merrill Bank, P.O. Box 306, Newport, Maine 04953.

For more information about this little boy and his difficult life journey, visit http://www.isiahangels.org.

The public is invited to the Belfast Lions Club annual Harvest Festival beginning with a yard sale at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Waldo County Shrine Club.

Children’s activities, ranging from face-painting to pumpkin carving, begin at 9 a.m. If the weather cooperates, a bounce house might be available.

A chili cook-off will begin at 8 a.m. with samples available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

You can taste the entries and vote for your favorite cook. The cooks paid a $10 entry fee for the opportunity to win the best chili award or the best-decorated booth award.

The Belfast Lions annual auction starts at 1 p.m., and a New England boiled dinner with homemade pies gets under way at 5 p.m.

If you want to donate yard sale items and have them picked up, call Steve Bergy at Home Supply, 338-1094, or Sandy Sanderson at 338-4392. Sanderson also will accept registrations for the chili cook-off.

Doug Dunbar reports the John Bapst Memorial High School Alumni Association will have a food and beverage tent during the school’s Homecoming Weekend, beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at Cameron Stadium behind the William S. Cohen School on Garland Street in Bangor, where other groups and organizations also will have booths.

“All graduates are encouraged to stop by the Alumni Association tent for refreshments and conversation with friends,” Dunbar wrote, adding that the homecoming football game begins at 7 that evening.

Eastern Maine Medical Center Auxiliary president Carol Colson reminds readers that the fourth annual EMMC Auxiliary Kitchen Tour is noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.

Sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank, it features six kitchens in Bangor, Glenburn, Winterport and Hampden.

Tickets are $25 and are available at Winterport Winery, Airline Pharmacy in Brewer and the EMMC Auxiliary Gift Shop, Rebecca’s on Main Street, Westgate Pharmacy on Union Street and Patrick’s Hallmark in the Broadway Shopping Center, all in Bangor.

Colson reports that all proceeds benefit Champion the Cure, the capital campaign for CancerCare of Maine.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; javerill@bangordailynews.net; 990-8288.