On Friday, September 2, the whole Mayfield community banded together to support St. Jude Children’s Hospital and local resident Kayla Hoover, a freshman at Mayfield High School, battling brain cancer.

Alex Gibbons, a varsity cheerleader at Mayfield High School, organized for the Mayfield Wildcats to host a St. Jude football game through the St. Jude website. After contacting St. Jude and getting the event organized, Gibbons called upon Hoover to also be recognized for her battle with cancer, and created fundraising for Hoover as well.

The idea all started when the cheer squad wanted to do more charity work within the community.

“I wanted to be able to make a difference in someone’s life and I had so many different ideas that I jumped at the opportunity to make my ideas come to life to raise money for children in need,” said Gibbons.

All of the fundraising didn’t just include the football game, but also t-shirt sales, a Chinese raffle, painting power cats, and a pregame tailgate party. Gibbons said the money will be split 50/50 between both St. Jude and Hoover, “This event will have half the money go to St. Jude’s and the other half with go directly to Kayla’s family. This money will help Kayla’s family pay for bills and some of their basic needs,” said Gibbons.

“The Mayfield community was involved in so many ways,” said Gibbons. “We had students who bought t-shirts at school and parents were getting power cats painted in their driveways and playing the Chinese raffle. We also hosted a tailgate party which was an open invite to the whole community,” Gibbons said.

Overall, the turnout of the event was even greater than Gibbons had hoped for. Gibbons said, “The goals were overachieved and we are still going collecting money. People are still wanting to give even after the event.”

Gibbons felt overwhelmed by the community. “Everyone’s support in this event means the world to me. I have been in tears since the beginning of Friday’s game just by how amazing the weekend went,” said Gibbons.

Gibbons said, “I could not of asked for a better night and our goals were way overachieved. I had no doubt in my mind that the mayfield community could raise the amount of money we did. I want to thank everyone for all the support because it means not only the world to myself but Kayla and her family, thank you.”