Generosity, celebration highlight Hampton High School Talbot Thon

An evening of fun and games started with an afternoon of celebration.

Prior to Hampton High School’s Talbot Thon benefit event on March 31, students, staff members and people from the community gathered in the auditorium in a continuing effort to demonstrate their support for Aiden Hanna.

Following several months of treatment, the 16-year-old sophomore now is cancer-free following a diagnosis of osteosarcoma, a bone tumor, in his leg.

As he spoke from the auditorium stage to express his gratitude, the audience provided plenty of applause on Aiden’s behalf. And to culminate the proceedings, members of the Hampton Township Police Department presented him with a ceremonial check representing a $1,200 donation from funds they raised during No-Shave November.

The money is earmarked for Aiden’s Helping Hands, a charity he decided to start shortly after he learned about his condition.

“That’s when the community really backed his big idea,” his mother, Tracy, said. “The prayers, the love, the support: You could really feel it.”

The mission of Aiden’s Helping Hands is to assist families of cancer patients at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

“In just these short few months of his charity, he was able to give gift cards to people to help with gas and food and clothing, and also he helped a patient get necessary chemo treatments out of state,” Tracy said. “He sent a family to a Steelers game who wouldn’t otherwise be able to do that. He’s fighting his own battle but giving to others. And that’s what helped him essentially get through.”

Aiden’s generosity ties in with the objective of the annual Talbot Thon, a partnership between the high school student council and Pitt Dance Marathon. This year, the event generated $25,182 for the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.

Featured were students participating in volleyball, dodgeball, foursquare and table tennis competitions, with members of the Hampton community invited to have a good time right along with them.

As far as fundraising, Aiden’s Helping Hands has been a beneficiary of several initiatives.

“From the elementary schools, middle school to the high school level, all of the buildings across Hampton Township have just rallied behind Aiden’s vision of helping others,” Tracy said. For example, “Hat Day” in September at Hampton Middle School, which her two daughters attend, brought in more than $2,100.

In January, the high school served as the site for a community blood drive on behalf of both Aiden and fellow Hampton student Lucy Interthal, a soccer player who missed her senior season after being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder that causes weakness and requires frequent infusions of antibodies.

And everyone hopes that Mother Nature cooperates for an Aiden’s Helping Hands benefit golf outing planned for 1 p.m. April 23 at Birdsfoot Golf Club in South Buffalo Township, Armstrong County. Aiden, who is on his school’s baseball and golf teams, is looking forward to hitting the links again.

“He’s really overcome many obstacles, but he’s taken it in such a positive light,” his mother said. “He wants to be the light in the darkness of cancer.”

For more information about Aiden’s Helping Hands, visit aidenshelpinghands.com.