Evansville High School Student Provides Ice Cream for Chemo Patients

Not many people would be craving ice cream at 9 o’clock in the morning, but when you are a chemo patient with a fickle tummy, ice cream can be the perfect breakfast.

As it turns out, ice cream is VERY popular with chemo patients all day long. We go through about 150 cups a month, which equates to 1,872 cups of ice cream so far.

Shortly after we began the Chemo Buddies program, I ran into an old friend from high school who was accompanying her best friend to chemo. As we talked, she asked me if there was any way her family could help out. As it turns out her family is part of a multi generational dairy farm. When she went home that night and talked to her family, her son Lance caught her passion and volunteered to be our milkman, supplying us with free ice cream for our patients.

Lance, a senior at Mater Dei High School, adopted us a year ago and each and every month he goes to the dairy co-op after school and then comes to OHA to fill our freezer. I asked him to stay one day and help us pass out ice cream to the grateful patients, and he told me, “No, I have to get home and milk the cows.”

Doesn’t that just make you smile? Picture this good looking young man with real world responsibilities and all the fun and freedom that being a senior in high school brings, yet he is faithfully committed to bringing us ice cream and making life just a little sweeter for a group of people he will never even meet.

I’ve got to tell you, I NEVER would have done anything like that at his age! I am so impressed with his kindness, his giving spirit, his maturity, his ability to juggle school with his job and personal life and still have time left for charity.

And he’s never asked for any credit or anything in return. Frankly, I suspect he’s going to be a tad bit embarrassed that I am outing him as our magnificent benefactor, but I can’t help myself, he’s one of my heroes.

On behalf of the 1,872 smiles your brought this year Lance, we thank you!

Click here for more information about Chemo Buddies or email info@mychemobuddies.com.