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By RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

Sophomore students from the Portsmouth West Vocal Choir have collected $2,300 for the Breast Cancer Compassion Fund at Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth.

Students created a month-long project to sell links of paper chain for 25-cents each, with the donor’s name written on the link. Choir Teacher Linda Tieman said she expected they could sell enough to wrap the chain around the cafeteria, and she was surprised when the chain became so long it wrapped entirely around the football field — more than 1,000 feet.

The school also sponsored a Pink Out Day during its last home football game, where they sold “Tackle for the Cure” T-shirts and sold $50 sponsorships for touchdowns. The West Senators won that game 43-0, earning quite a bit toward their cause.

“Our middle school and elementary teachers would buy links for their entire class, and we sold over 250 T-shirts just in our school,” Tieman said.

Through their fundraising efforts, students at West helped raise $2,300 for the SOMC Breast Cancer Compassion Fund.

Dr. Vincent Scarpenato created the Compassion Fund at SOMC to help patients with financial difficulties not always associated with direct medical bills; such as gas for their car to medical visits, lymphodema sleeves, and wigs. Scarpinato said he was surprised when he heard how much the students had collected for the fund and the respect they had shown for the project.

“I was able to get over to the high school and see the chain at the high school. It was really impressive. It was literally around the entire school. It wasn’t vandalized, and everyday the kids would go around and pick up where it fell down a little. You could tell when you walked in there was great community spirit,” he said.

Nurse Kim Richendollar, Breast Health Navigator at the SOMC Cancer Center in Portsmouth, said they were excited and pleased to receive the donation.

Participating members of the sophomore choir were Courtney Cox, Emily Howard, Kady Essman, Whitney Middleton, Natalie Marasek, Taylor Conley, Travis Smith, Kelsi Puckett, Alex Rideout and McKenzie McNutt. Also participating was Krista Ingles, Tiffany Bledsoe, Emily Dunham, Cassandra Matney, Devon Yazell, Brittany Toppins, Brandon Hall, Brandon Scott, Angel Trapp, and Morgan Book.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.