Sunday, November 15, 2009

Benefit held for Danta Jackson a Park High Grad!


Danta Jackson, center, is show with Chasity James, Racine Journal Times writer Marci Laethr Tenuta, LaToya Ellis, and Terry Redmond

Danta Jackson was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in April and Marci Laethr Tenuta, a Racine Journal Times writer, was acknowledged for publishing the story about a benefit that was held in his honor Saturday.

Pictures of the event

Childhood friends and former classmates gathered Saturday to hold a benefit for the 32-year-old Racine man diagnosed with colon cancer in an attempt to raise cancer awareness and money to donate to him, both at the same time. Jackson kept up with friends through the social networking website Facebook. "It was a way to get in touch with everybody at the same time," he said in the daily paper.

Chasity James and LaToya Ellis, classmates who now live in Houston, have kept up with their childhood friend. The two said that the benefit was intended to let their friend know that people in Racine's community care about him, and to bring needed awareness to how colon cancer impacts men, especially African American males.

During a private dinner at the San Francisco Grill, 6300 Washington Ave., where a dance was also held later, the organizers handed out blue ribbons to over 150 guests that attended the dance after the dinner.

At the dinner Jackson was presented a proclamation from Racine’s Mayor John Dickert, a basketball from Caron Bulter and members of the Washington Wizard NBA team, and a mini Park High School helmet from the football team coach.

James and Ellis did all the planning from Houston, mostly through Facebook, said that Jackson has now finished with chemotherapy, but facing more surgery and radiation. They said he was surprised that his friends showed their support by having a party in his honor.

James said they developed a list of people in their age group that were doing positive things and asked them to donate their time and talents to the benefit. Most of the sponsors are old classmates from Jefferson Elementary, McKinley Middle School and Park High School, the Times article said.

Much of the local legwork in Racine was done by Terry Redmond of Racine, who recently started a party promotion business called Sophisticated Soul Entertainment, is promoting the event here.

Others that helped were Racine native Brandon Jones of Chicago, who made the desserts for the event, and Lorri Koutromanos, manager of the San Francisco Grill, who provided the venue for the benefit at a minimal charge.

The organizer wants this to be an annual event that will get the word out about colon cancer.

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