The Westerville North High School community is dedicating next week to Faith Pruden, a Westerville student who passed away in 2010 from brain cancer at age 7. She would have been a senior at WNHS this year.
As part of the festivities, students will dress up to different themes during #FaithsSpiritWeek starting Monday. On May 1, the Warrior softball team is hosting a Strike Out Cancer event during its games against New Albany and Olentangy to raise money for the Faith Pruden Foundation, which supports families with children receiving cancer treatments at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
There is no admission to watch games but the team will have donation jars and run 50/50 drawings for the foundation. They will also host families the foundation is supporting, with kids currently battling cancer throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to kick off each game. The game schedule for May 1:
VARSITY GAMES
10 a.m. North vs New Albany
Noon New Albany vs Olentangy
2 p.m. North vs Olentangy
JV GAMES
Noon North vs Olentangy
2 p.m. North vs Olentangy
Players will be wearing shirts commemorating the Strike Out Cancer event that were donated by NorthStar Family Dental, Uptown Eye Care, and J.C. Manny. Additional shirts will be available for purchase at the games.
For those who can’t make the event, there are other opportunities to donate:
The Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation supports families with rent/mortgage and car payments, household bills, gift cards for food and gas. They donate themed books for the kids on Floor 12 at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. They adopted a room at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio, providing food, clothes, games and iPads to the kids getting treatments and their siblings who are staying with the families. Donations to the foundation also provide two college scholarships — one for any Westerville student planning to study the arts, cosmetology, the culinary arts or firefighting (all things that Faith loved) and one for a student who is a cancer survivor. Learn more about the foundation here.