Published: August 09, 2008 07:24 pm         

Relay team raises money with toilets

A Stillwater Relay For Life team has launched the Camo Commode Crusade to raise money to fight cancer.

David’s Army, formed in 2005 to honor David Muegge when he was 6 years old and had just completed almost a year of cancer treatment, is raising money for Relay For Life by placing a toilet painted in camouflage pattern on the lawns of Stillwater residents and businesses.

A camo commode — demand has forced the team to expand to three of them — can be sent to or removed from a location for $10. For $20, it can be removed from one location and sent to another requested location. Camo Commode Insurance, at a cost of $30, will ensure that it will not show up in a particular location.

The money raised will go to the American Cancer Society through Relay For Life in Stillwater for cancer research, education and patient support.

Relay For Life will be Aug. 22 in Couch Park. The all-night event will begin at 7 p.m. with a basket auction. Opening ceremonies will be at 8 p.m.

Muegge was first diagnosed on July 1, 2004 with a rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft muscle tissue tumor. He received 42 weeks of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, his mother, Leslie Muegge, wrote in an e-mail.

Muegge remained in remission until this spring, when his knee began hurting and he started limping, his mother wrote. On March 14, doctors diagnosed a recurrence of rhabdomyosarcoma and also found a very small mass on his lung.

They conducted a biopsy and removed about half the mass. Muegge began a 50-week course of chemotherapy and had an eight- to nine-hour surgery in June to remove the mass.

“The doctors feel that they removed everything that they could see and until all preliminary specimens came back negative,” she wrote in her e-mail. “His post surgery CT scan looked good but there was still swelling and tissue changes and another CT scan will be completed in September.”

Relay For Life is important to Muegge’s family because they can raise money for cancer research, his mother wrote. Doctors are studying recurrence of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and treatment, but there is no set protocol, she wrote.

“It’s very hard to hear that the doctors do not have all the information they need to give a family a tested treatment plan of what they know works and what doesn’t when it comes to your child’s treatment,” she wrote.

“In addition at every visit to the clinic we see so many kids — so many very young kids fighting cancer. We feel that we need to help fight and find answers and a cure for them also.

“It takes time and money to find a cure — Stillwater’s Relay for Life teams, including David’s Army, are trying to make sure the money is there.”

Muegge’s family and friends actually have three Relay For Life teams now: the original David’s Army; David’s Army Kids Battalion, children ages 3-11; and David’s Army Skyline Battalion, teachers, friends and parents.

They hope to make the Camo Commode Crusade an annual fundraiser, Leslie Muegge said. To participate in the fundraiser, call her at (580) 336-1943.

     

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