The two students used their senior project to help patients undergoing cancer treatment.
Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center has homemade fleece blankets and new wigs and scarves thanks to two
Mazama High School seniors, who turned their senior projects into a way to help local cancer patients.
Abby Harvey, with the help of donations from local businesses, purchased colorful and patterned fleece to create 25 fleece blankets for patients to use while undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the center.
Allison Mills organized a pink-out basketball game for breast cancer between Mazama and Henley high schools that raised more than $2,000 for the cancer center’s Care Room, which provides wigs, scarves and other necessities for patients undergoing treatment.
“I want to go into the medical field,” Harvey said. “For my senior project, I really wanted to do something
Abby Harvey, Mazama Senior
important, something that made a difference.”
Harvey spent more than 40 hours creating the tied double-fleeced blankets. Each one is different, ranging in design from colorful foxes and baseballs to palm trees, evergreen forests and seashore motifs.
Mills started planning the Feb. 15 pink-out game in September, spending 50 hours organizing the event. She ordered pink T-shirts for Mazama students and fans and coordinated with Henley High School student leaders so their fans and students also wore pink. She also was able to get shirts donated for the basketball players on both teams.
During the game, she did a “miracle minute,” which collects cash donations from the crowd for 60 seconds, raising more than $900.
“It was a huge crowd, and that’s what I was hoping for,” Mills said. “I wanted to make it a community event. I
Allison MIlls
wanted it to be everybody coming together instead of two teams against each other.”
The money she raised was donated to the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Foundation, specifically to help patients.
Of Harvey’s 25 blankets, 22 were delivered last month to the Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center. Three were given to community members fighting cancer – two to Henley students; and another to a spouse of a Mazama staff member. Harvey said family and friends helped her with the blankets, which took about two months to make. Harvey thanked the community organizations and businesses who donated towards her project. They include Body Works Physical Therapy, Chicken Shack, EpiCenter, and Merry Maids. Body Works Physical Therapy also donated towards Mills’ pink-out game and fundraiser.