In it together

On the morning of June 20, supporters rumbled down Alexa Brown's quiet Clyde cul-de-sac.

Slung across her mom's arms, the weak 11-year-old waved beauty-queen style as more than 200 motorcycles went past.

Those riders and dozens of other community members raised $20,000 that day for two families coping with pediatric cancer -- the Browns of Clyde and the Hiseys of Green Springs.

Many of the supporters live locally. They give generously because they've witnessed the war.

In the Clyde-Green Springs community, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't been touched in some way by the area childhood cancer cluster.

With 28 children diagnosed with cancer, almost every Clyde resident knows a neighbor, friend, relative or classmate battling the disease.

These folks rally around the high school football team on Friday nights and cook up landslides of cookies and cupcakes for school and church bake sales.

"Once you're a Clyde Flyer, you're always a Clyde Flyer," city councilman Steve Keegan explained.

Community members pray together, voice concerns to government agencies and pin golden ribbons on their shirts to symbolize unity.

"My heart goes out to them," said Jennifer Jenne, whose son Jake is good friends with Tanner Hisey.

It's hard for parents like Jenne not to worry about their own children as they provide vital support to prop up fellow families through the worst of times.

As the popular saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

In the tight-knit community of Clyde, this couldn't be more true.

Ride for Clyde

Dozens of children hopped around in bounce houses and hobbled across the lawn atop ponies at The Church on 53 just south of Fremont.

Their parents and others tapped toes to live music while eating hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches.

Rows of classic cars and motorcycles gleamed in the parking lot.

Emotion hung heavy.

Hundreds of people gathered at the church this day to support the Brown and Hisey families.

Led by Pastor Matt Coucher they prayed, asking God to heal Alexa Brown and Tanner Hisey, both 11, and to help Tanner’s older sister, Tyler, 16, stay in remission.

Alexa had just returned home from Vermont where new tumors and lesions on her brain disqualified her from a clinical trial — the only option left to treat her cancer.

“We have no place else to go but to God,” Warren Brown, Alexa’s dad, told the crowd.

Church members and bikers sporting leather jackets lowered their heads and prayed, their sense of urgency palpable.

Tanner, who stuck out with his bald head and thin legs, made just one request of the crowd.

“All I have to say is please pray for Alexa,” he told them.

Feverish the morning of the event, Alexa couldn’t attend. The caravan of motorcycles and emergency vehicles took a detour down her street to bid her well.

Warren, who sold his motorcycle shortly after Alexa’s diagnosis in 2006, borrowed a bike from a local dealer to ride in the procession.

“When I looked in my rearview and (saw) all those bikes, it brought tears to my eyes,” he said.

Parents at the event said they hoped health and environmental investigators soon find the cause of the heartbreaking amount of childhood cancer in the area.

Tamara Hahl, Fremont, watched closely as her 5-year-old daughter, Felicity, and 8-year-old son, Levi, romped around the bounce houses.

She worries about the health of her own family.

“I thank God every night that they are healthy,” she said. “I can’t imagine what these families are going through.”

Team Tanner

Barry and Valerie Boss have a good idea what the Hiseys are up against.

Tyler and Tanner’s aunt and uncle watch as the family deals with the emotional and financial turmoil caused by two children’s illnesses.

Doctors diagnosed Tyler with leukemia in 2006. After a few scary months on the edge of life and death, she recovered. Then Donna and Dave Hisey were stunned by their son’s diagnosis of a different kind of leukemia in 2008.

During the past three years, the family trekked to Toledo countless times for checkups and treatments.

The travel, Donna’s absence from work at Whirlpool, the children’s sickness and high insurance deductibles put a strain on the family’s finances.

To help with the cost and provide a little fun in the process, the Bosses decided to team up with Sleepy

Hollow Golf Course in Clyde for a charity golf scramble.

Tyler and Tanner took to the course with dozens of other golfers.

Club co-owner Kit Hetrick said he’d like to make the scramble an annual event, choosing a different childhood cancer patient to honor each year.

At another fundraiser in October, 250 people dug into surf and turf dinners in support of the family at the VFW in Clyde.

“If it wasn’t for the community we probably would have lost our house,” Donna said. “It probably would have been a whole different situation, so thank God for that.”

Neighborly love

While residents share sympathy and support for struggling families, some took their neighborly love a step further.

One of them is Sheryl Conley, a long-time speech therapist in the Clyde-Green Springs Schools.

Conley forged a tight bond with Alexa in 2006 after doctors removed a tumor from the little girl’s brain.

The cancer and operation cut holes in Alexa’s memory and stunted her speech.

“I probably learned more from her than she did from me,” Conley said. “She was just always so pleasant. No matter how she felt when someone would ask her how she was, she’d always say, ‘OK.’ She never complained.”

Conley said in more than 30 years of teaching she never met a child like Alexa.

“She was so determined to get well, determined to get her speech back, determined to walk,” she said.

As Alexa lay dying in her parents’ bed, Conley took over household duties while Warren and Wendy spent precious moments with their daughter.

She and neighbors planned big spreads of food to feed more than a dozen people who held vigil in the Brown’s living room.

When Alexa succumbed to her cancer Aug. 6, Conley felt like she, too, lost a daughter.

Though her two sons are grown, Conley said she also worries about what’s behind the devastating illnesses.

“I sure wish they’d find out what it is before we have to see this happen to somebody else,” she said. “There’s been way too many kids with cancer and it’s just so sad.”