Joey Manzi, a 6th grade student at Catherine McGee Middle School in Berlin, CT, recently entered an essay contest to have money donated to the Meso Foundation in honor of his dad, Anthony Manzi, who is a mesothelioma survivor. Joey’s essay was one of the top selected at his school and resulted in a donation from Catherine McGee Middle School. Lisa Rolfe, a member of the Meso Foundation community and a mesothelioma survivor, was present to accept the donation on behalf of the Foundation.
The Meso Foundation is so grateful for Joey’s efforts to raise funds and awareness to help us find a cure for mesothelioma. We’re happy to be able to share with you Joey’s essay:
Dear March Madness Committee,
The foundation that I would like to donate the money from March Madness is the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.
It was a very warm and beautiful day in June. I was about 7 or 8. I remember I was playing with my brother Nicholas outside. Little did I know today would be the day I found out that my Dad has a serious cancer called mesothelioma or meso for short. When we first figured it out, I was really little so I really didn’t understand what was really going on at the time. It was a really hard time for our entire family because we really didn’t know what the outcome was.
We all just kept our heads up and would think that whatever happened we would just work through it. I remember when we got that call late at night and my mom said that my grandparents had to come watch us, because she had to go to the hospital. The next morning me and my brother were expecting the worst. But it was the greatest news I had ever heard in my life. My dad was fine and coming home on the 4th of July. When he came home we all were so happy but sobbing because we knew that he had survived cancer. Now we all look back and think about all the hard things and realize that we had all prayed for him and asked for him to come home ok.
The reason I want the money to go to this foundation is because there is little knowledge about the cancer and all the things that cause it. The real cause for it is asbestos. We really didn’t know how and where he got it from. Also it is a really serious cancer and really no-one actually thinks about it. Everyone knows about breast cancer awareness month but we really have to think about the other cancers. Please March Madness Committee, I really want to help the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation so people don’t have to worry about this affecting one of their family members.
