NOBODY FIGHTS ALONE: ELMIRA HEIGHTS HOLDS FUNDRAISER TO BENEFIT STUDENT WITH CANCER (24 PHOTOS) (2023-02-28)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA HEIGHTS — The bleachers were packed, the student body all dressed in purple as the entire Elmira Heights community came out to support one of their own on Tuesday.

A pair of modified girls basketball games against Odessa-Montour, were followed by a half-court shot contest, and an exhibition game featuring high school athletes to raise money to benefit Cohen Middle School student Landon Marsh, who is battling Hodkins Lymphoma. The event raised $4,630.

“We heard about Landon’s journey and we decided we wanted to do something as a high school district to bring the community together,” high school student council vice president Payton Littlefield said. “Raise some money and just do something fun to get us going into the spring season and we thought this would be perfect.

“This is actually student council’s idea. I’m the vice president of student council. We were at a meeting and we decided we wanted to do something to bring the whole school together and then we decided we wanted to bring Landon into it and raise money for Landon’s family.”

There were t-shirt sales and a student body dressed in the purple t-shirts for a purple out. There were concessions, raffles, 50/50 and other fundraising efforts that were put together by both the high school and middle school student councils.

“We care very much about everyone at our school and when we heard that Landon had cancer it affected all of us because if one of us is fighting we all fight,” middle school student council president Jordan Elliott said. “We decided to put together a thing for Landon because nobody fights alone.

“It’s nice to see us do something together. Usually things are school by school so it’s nice to see the whole district come together to support Landon.”

The two schools worked together to try and make the the event happen. It was special for the students to see this kind of turnout.

“We used a lot of student council funds to bring this together and we are making a huge profit for Landon tonight and the support from the community is overwhelming,” Littlefield said. “I’ve never seen this many students at a game in my life and I’ve been playing varsity basketball for four years, so to have this number of people be here to support Landon and his family tonight is absolutely incredible and I’m so grateful for it all.”

The high school and middle school student councils were happy to work together as a group.

“The middle school did a great job of brining their aspect of the fundraiser to the high school tonight,” Littlefield said. “Yesterday we did a benefit during the day at the middle school and we got to play in a seventh and eighth grade game there and then we are doing a high school game tonight. So, it was great they decided to join us tonight and help us raise more money.”

The whole event brought the entire community together.

“It’s so great and I really hope the Marsh family appreciates it and I really hope Landon gets better and I hope this has a good turnout for him,” Elliott said. “The community I think it’s good, the community all came out to support someone. I’m just happy that everyone came together.”
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In top photo: A high school exhibition game, half-point contest and middle school games against Odessa-Montour were a part of Tuesday’s fundraiser. PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES