A new club is coming to Westerville North, WarriorThon, with the purpose of raising funds to fight pediatric cancer. Their first meeting was Wednesday, Jan. 19, and they plan to arrange a dodgeball tournament at North in the spring. The dodgeball tournament proceeds will be donated to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

   WarriorThon is an affiliate of BuckeyeThon Youth Philanthropy, the largest student-run philanthropy in Ohio. The main BuckeyeThon organization is at The Ohio State University which has hosted 12 hour-long dances in the past and has donated over $12.3 million in the fight against childhood cancer. Other schools in central Ohio such as Gahanna Lincoln and Dublin Scioto contain chapters of their very own BuckeyeThon (BuckeyeThon Youth Philanthropy).

   Eli Lynskey (11), Carson Ebbrecht (11) and Connie Wu (11) are the three founding members of WarriorThon at North. 

   “I have a friend who runs TangyThon, a BuckeyeThon affiliate at Olentangy, and I saw their events and saw what they were doing and saw how much of an impact it had on their community, and I was really interested,” Lynskey said.

   Lynsky was inspired by the work of TangyThon and wanted North to have the same club. Together the founders picked English teacher Leslie Baumann to be their advisor to the club. 

   “This is kind of out of my wheelhouse,” Baumann said. “ [It is] not something that I’ve done before, which is part of the reason why I’m interested in it.”

   “Storing funds is the most challenging part [with WarriorThon],” Ebbrecht said.

   Writing records of the funds coming in and out of the club is to ensure that no one is stealing the funds.

   Entering the dodgeball tournament will cost a small fee and there will be an additional donation site if people want to donate more for pediatric cancer. Participants of the dodgeball tournament have the potential to earn a prize if they win the tournament. Members of WarriorThon are allowed to participate in the dodgeball tournament, but the founders of the club can not. The final details of the dodgeball tournament will be worked out in the future WarriorThon meetings.

   Their meetings will take place on Wednesday right after school and will be every two weeks to once a month. Leaders of the club that will meet more often to help in organizing. There are plans for more fundraising events coming to North from WarriorThon in the months after the dodgeball tournament. 

   “You should come!” Ebbrecht said.