SMOOT, WV (WOAY) – A five-year-old girl is battling leukemia, and volunteers at a local Ruritan Club are helping raise money for her treatments.
The local Ruritan Club in the small town of Smoot has been around for 75 years. They’ve always done charity events for the community, and this weekend they held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. According to the Smoot Ruritan President Jerome Rodes, this one is unique because it’s to help fund Izzy Barnes’ cancer treatments.
“Our club in conjunction with some other organizations are raising money for this young lady who has leukemia and the family we know has a lot of expenses. She’s in Cincinnati right now, so we’re just trying to help her out,” Rodes said.
The dinner is dedicated to Izzy and every dollar raised will go to the Barnes family. They sold dozens of tickets in advance and expected to see hundreds of patrons. Cancer treatment is notorious for expensive medical bills, and according to one volunteer, they’re just trying to help out in whatever way they can.
“Being a parent, having a child at that age, and having to deal with this. The cost of treatment is overwhelming I’m sure. So we’re just trying to help a family out that needs help.”
To help out with the dinner, the Smoot Volunteer Fire Department let the Ruritan use their station. More than a dozen volunteers helped out with the fundraiser today. They say that as a community, they need to stick together and help each other out whenever they can.
“We believe that’s what we need to do as good citizens of the community. It makes our community stronger and when we work together it pulls us together a little bit too.”
At $10 a dinner, the Ruritan Club ended up raising more than $10,000 for Izzy Barnes. Anyone interested in helping out the family can visit the Izzie Grace Strong Facebook Page and donate online.
