During an injury rehab stint with the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2008, Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson, then with the Detroit Tigers, noticed a memorial outside of the stadium in honor of Brian Bluhm, a fan of his who had been killed in the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.

“From that point it kind of escalated to the point of meeting his family and doing different things like getting his name announced at Tigers games, getting a jersey in memory of him,” Granderson said.  (more…)

When doctors told Judd Katzen the best case scenario facing his daughter Emma was leukemia, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I thought they had made a mistake,” he said. “I thought they can’t be saying that.”

It was a Friday night in early February at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Prior to that day, Emma’s life was that of a normal seventh-grader. A tennis player with an interest in photography, she finished her fourth year of cheerleading with the local Pop Warner squad last fall. (more…)

A group of Durand elementary and junior high students went big with their fundraising efforts recently, bringing in nearly $1,100 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients program.

In previous years, the fundraiser has netted $200 to $300, so student council adviser Taniya Bland wasn’t expecting such a large total.

“We don’t know what the grand total is until the end (of the three-week fundraiser),” Bland said. “I was quite shocked when we got over a thousand.”   (more…)