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By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Staff
When Medfield’s David Higgins speaks, it is in intense bursts, punctuated by quiet moments of reflection. It is as though all that Mr. Higgins has experienced is demanding to be heard, but cannot possibly do so without proper processing time. Given exactly what he has experienced, both positive and negative, one should not be surprised.
“I have a son [Declan] who's four years old who's been battling brain cancer,” explains Higgins. “In 2014, he was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma. They found a brain tumor in January 2014. He had the tumor taken out the next day after they found it. It was stage three cancer, and he did six weeks of proton radiation.”
Since then, Declan and his family have lived in the shadow of a terrible disease, one that is incredibly frightening to people of all ages, let alone those at the tender age of four. To combat Declan’s cancer, the Higgins clan has found itself in constant contact with some of the area’s finest medical professionals.
“The Jimmy Fund Clinic and Children's Hospital have been a big part of our lives for the last couple years,” says David. “Anyone who's experienced being part of those hospitals, you're blown away by the people who work there.”
It is that sense of overwhelming gratitude that led Higgins and his family to give something back.
“Being that September was going to be Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, we thought it was a good idea to do something through Children's Hospital and the Jimmy Fund Clinic that worked so closely with us and have been so unbelievable to us,” he says. “We would do something to raise money to fight pediatric cancer.”
“I wanted to try to do something that was fun and something that was interacting with the community and a fun way to raise money,” he continues. “We did a cornhole tournament. We named it after my son and called it the Declan Cornhole Classic.”
A classic it most certainly was. Held in September, the Cornhole Classic brought over 60 teams to the Higgins home for a double-elimination tournament. Bracket boards hung outside the house so people could follow the tournament’s progress. Microphones were hooked up to announce matches. People ran to and from the games to relay results to the organizers.
Oh yeah, and there were also a couple of bouncy houses for the kids.
“It was an overwhelming community spirit that I haven't felt in a long time,” says Higgins, reflecting on the day. “I thought it was the 1950s. We had people bringing over bags of ice, asking what they could do. People bringing over chairs, bringing over coolers. A ton of people brought food. It was unbelievable. And then, throw top of that, to raise money for cancer, the cornhole tournament itself was a great success.”
It wasn’t just the tournament that raised money, though. Some members of the community came simply to donate and offer their love to Declan and his family.
“We had a lot of neighbors, a lot of people in the community, a lot of people who donated more money,” says Higgins, still somewhat incredulously. “We raised over $7,000 to make a donation.
“It is amazing. We didn't do raffle tickets, we didn't do tee-shirts. We put out a donation box, got word of mouth around, didn't really advertise it … it was to amazing to us. We're still receiving checks in the mail from people who want to donate.”
It’s the overall sense of community spirit that seems to stick with him most, though.
“At one point, I turned around and I must have saw 60 or 70 kids in my backyard playing. I looked around and I had about 120 adults playing cornhole. It was an overwhelming positive experience.”
He pauses a moment, processing it all. “I couldn’t imagine it going better. We've already had a ton of people reach out to us hoping that we could do it again next year.”
That is something that remains in the plans, with David Higgins and his family already marking next year’s Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month as the target. “We're going to do it annually,” he confirms.
“My greatest hope for the event is that we continue to fight this awful disease, pediatric cancer, which has afflicted my son,” says Higgins. “It's been devastating and very difficult for us with a child in our own family who continues to battle.
“If this event, somehow, in some small way, helps find a cure. Or opens a door somewhere, somehow, that helps in the future. That would be our goal.”
There’s another goal, too - one that makes itself known in words and deeds rather than dollars and cents.
“Raising awareness is something that's very important. I think it's something that people tend not to want to talk about it with families like mine,” he reflects. “They don't want to ask how you're doing; they're afraid of the answer. It's positive to speak about it. It's positive to let people know what's going on.
“Pediatric cancer touches everybody in every town. It's imperative that we all work together towards making a better future for everybody. I want people to be aware: this happens in our community, it happens in other communities.”
Readers wishing to donate to Declan’s cause may do so by mailing checks made out directly to The Jimmy Fund (with a note in the memo field that the donation is in Declan Higgins’ name) to David Higgins, 23 Garry Drive, Medfield, MA 02052.
