Sharing a meal: St. Joseph High School plans fundraiser for student battling cancer

Sitting down to eat this dinner will be about more than food for the body. It’s about feeding the spirit.

The St. Joseph High School athletic association is hosting a fundraising dinner to support Eli Swierczewski, a senior three-sport athlete. The Harrison resident has been diagnosed with a recurrence of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that occurs in bones or in the soft tissue around the bones.

A meal of pasta and meatballs, salad, rolls, beverages and dessert is planned from 5:30-9 p.m. March 7 in Patterson Hall at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Harrison. Tickets for the Spartans Rally for Eli Dinner are $10 per person, dine in or takeout.

Contributions from far and wide

“This event is for people to gather in love and friendship for our Spartan in his battle, and to raise awareness about this disease,” says event chairwoman Jackie Fellowes of New Kensington. “We want to do what we can to help Eli and his family. We want this to be more than just a spaghetti dinner. We want it to be a nice evening with entertainment and an opportunity to come together and support one of our own.”

Fellowes says the support has extended from the athletic department, throughout the school, into the community and beyond. She has received gift cards and donations from “Arnold to Altoona.”

“Everyone wants to help Eli because he is such a great guy,” says Fellowes, whose son Dominic is also a senior. “Eli is so humble, and he doesn’t want us making a fuss over him.”

No, he doesn’t, his mother Pam Swierczewski says. Still, she says, the support has been “heartwarming and overwhelming in a good way … to think people care and will come together for us.”

“This dinner is another one of the amazing things St. Joseph High School has done for Eli and our family. This dinner will bring people from the whole community together,” she says. “Each time I turn around, there is something else they are doing for us. They keep outdoing themselves.”

The response from people has been amazing, Fellowes says. “We are truly blessed.”

Donations have come from Olive Garden in Tarentum, Golden Dawn and Fazio’s Pizza & Italian Food in Arnold, Community Market in Natrona Heights, JG’s Tarentum Station Grille and House of 1000 Beers, Costa’s Italian Market, King’s Restaurant and Sheetz, all in New Kensington.

Many of the meal donations came from the connections of Brett DuVall, whose daughter Kelsey is a junior and the best friend of Eli Swierczewski’s sister Ally. When his daughter asked him to help there was no hesitation.

Brett DuVall works at the House of 1000 Beers. He and Kelsey, as well as his wife Vanessa and their son Ethan, a 2015 graduate of Riverview High School, will volunteer at the dinner.

“Anything my children ask me to do, if I can do it, I do,” DuVall says. “People we asked to help were willing not only to donate food and drinks but also money to help buy other things we need. The House of 1000 Beers has been incredible too.”

More than a meal

The evening will include a themed-basket raffle, a silent auction, which includes a current senior’s handmade quilt and an alumni’s artwork, a 50-50 raffle and live music by the high school’s spring musical cast and alumni.

Class of 1984 alumnus Robert Heinle will emcee. Organizers are planning for 400 guests.

“This is about more than the spaghetti dinner,” Fellowes says. “It’s a place for families to gather and spend quality time together and appreciate each other, appreciate the gift of life.

“When you see Eli smile you can’t help but want to smile back and do whatever you can for him. To have to go through this a second time, especially his senior year of high school, we want him to know we ‘bELIeve’ in him, and we will rally around him.”

Pam Swierczewski says her son is holding up pretty well, although this round of medication is more difficult than they thought it would be.

“Eli is a great reason to bring people together,” his mother says. “All of this support is a positive thing that came out of something bad.”

Details: saintjosephhs.com