News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Hannah Pite was unforgettable.
The little girl who battled for two years against a rare form of leukemia won the hearts of the students who raised funds for her family through the Sparrow Club back in 2003-2005. In turn, Sisters came to hold a dear place in the hearts of the Pite family, who live in Bend.
"She loved this town," says her father Dani Pite.
As the family faced repeated, arduous trips to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Sparrow Club students performed community service work and accomplished in two weeks what most schools work at for a whole year: they matched $2,560 in seed money which was put up by the late Dick "Rhino" Reinertson.
The students went on to surpass their commitment, carrying out additional fundraisers to raise a total of $4,000.
Today, Dani Pite remembers "some amazing children that are (now) young adults who stepped up to help our family."
Hannah lost her battle with cancer on March 15, 2005, leaving an unfillable void in the Pite family. But her legacy lives on in a striking example of "paying it forward."
The Bpositiv Foundation, founded by the Pites to help other families facing the same kind of crisis they once faced, has annually held a charity arts auction. This year's Bpositiv 10 Charity Art Auction is set for January 25, 2014, at McMenamins in Bend.
The foundation is still receiving artists' contributions, including many from Sisters. To inquire about donating work, email Dani at [email protected] or call 541-390-7684.
The original event was held on January 29, 2005, as a birthday party for Hannah, who had been handed a terminal diagnosis.
"We thought an evening of food, music and art was a good way to thumb our nose at the ugliness of childhood cancer," Pite recalled.
The night was a magical one for Hannah - and it also raised more than $5,000. A portion of those funds was donated to the Red Cross to help in relief efforts for the Asian tsunami that had just devastated hundreds of thousands of lives. Hannah had seen images on TV and asked her parents, "Shouldn't we do something to help?"
That spirit of helping continued after Hannah's passing. The Pites decided to continue the event as a tribute to their daughter's spirit as "a sweet, sweet flower - and a mighty warrior."
The Bpositiv Charity Art Auction became an annual event to be held on the weekend closest to Hannah's birthday. The auction donated the proceeds from the first six events to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. More than $50,000 dollars was raised. In 2009 the Pite family formally enacted the steps to turn the Bpositiv Charity Art Auction into the Bpositiv Foundation for Children with Cancer, Inc., now a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All proceeds from this year's Bpositiv 10 Charity Art Auction will be donated directly to the programs for the Bpositiv Foundation for Children with Cancer, Inc.
The non-profit provides assistance to families of children who are facing a terminal diagnosis. Expenses can be crushing.
As the Bpositiv website explains, "We offer direct financial support (when available) to these families using a simple application process for related end-of-life expenses. Over the past year ... we have begun to offer these stipends to help defray such costs as funerary expenses and mortgage or rent payments to allow these families the dignity they deserve at the time of their child's passing as well as to allow them some slight respite from the financial burden each of these families face."
Everything associated with the auction, from the art to the wine to the infrastructure is donated, pulling the entire community together to help families facing perhaps the toughest battle any family can face.
For more information on Bpositiv, their programs and the Bpositiv Charity Art Auction, visit www.Bpositiv.org
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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