Golf tourney raises money, awareness for childhood cancer research

For her 10th birthday, Mary Elizabeth Paris filled her wish list with requests for shampoo, toothpaste and bars of soap.

Demonstrating a level of compassion and maturity beyond her years, she made it clear she didn’t want any gifts for herself. She asked friends and family for donations of toiletries to go to the Methodist Home for Children Home & Youth in Macon. She took her charitable campaign efforts door-to-door in her neighborhood in north Atlanta.

Thanks to Mary Elizabeth, the kids at the Methodist Home soon had the fewest cavities and cleanest hair this side of Pierce Avenue. She collected more than $1,500 in donations. A heartwarming story about her efforts made the front page of The Telegraph on Feb. 16, 2013.

The following spring, Mary Elizabeth was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She died five years ago this month, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. She was 12 years old.

This is why Joe Posey will greet golfers at Houston Lake Country Club Monday morning with tears in his eyes. Again.

Mary Elizabeth was the oldest of his six grandchildren. She had him wrapped from the start and never let go. She was named Mary Elizabeth, after his mother.

He spoke at her funeral.

“I loved her before she ever was born,’’ he said.

Joe started the Mary Elizabeth Memorial Golf Tournament and Silent Auction four years ago. The tournament has raised more than $250,000 for childhood cancer research. With 160 players, it is one of the largest non-club-sponsored golf tournaments in Middle Georgia.

Joe is a retired educator and a former Perry city councilman. He also is a cancer survivor. The proceeds from the tournament will go to St. Jude’s Children Hospital in Memphis – where Mary Elizabeth was a patient the last 11 months of her life – the United for a Cure Foundation and The James E. Worrall Foundation.

Joe noticed a disturbing change in his granddaughter’s appearance on a family beach trip in the spring of 2014. She had lost weight. The usual bounce in her step was missing. She had bruises on her legs, and not the kind an 11-year-old gets from bumping into things.

When Mary Elizabeth was diagnosed with AML, she was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Emory to begin chemotherapy. After she lost her hair, she didn’t lose her spirit. She placed a bow on her bald head and wore dangling earrings to make a fashion statement.

Later, it was determined she would need a bone marrow transplant, her brother, Whit, who was 6 years old at the time, was a perfect match.

Her mother, Mandi, began writing about her daughter’s cancer journey and eventually more than 11,000 people began following the posts on Facebook. A reporter from WXIA-TV, Channel 11 in Atlanta, did a story on Mary Elizabeth and mentioned her favorite movie was “Napoleon Dynamite.’’

Mary Elizabeth later received a video with get-well wishes from actor Jon Heder, none other than Napoleon Dynamite himself. He made the video “in character’’ from his living room. She also was visited in the hospital by actor, Efren Ramirez, who played Napoleon’s sidekick, Pedro.

No pets were allowed at the hospital, but she did get a visit from Hairy Dawg, the costumed mascot for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Mary Elizabeth spent most of the last year of her life at St. Jude. When people sent her gifts, she insisted on giving them to other children.

She affectionately called her grandfather “Paw Paw.’’ In the five years since her death, Joe has made the circuit of public speaking about childhood cancer to civic clubs and church groups. He is a former P.E. and science teacher in Houston County, so it hits home when he sees the figures.

One in every four elementary schools has a student with cancer.

One in five children diagnosed will not survive.

Mandi, a graduate of Westfield Academy, has done volunteer work with CURE, which is dedicated to research and support for childhood cancer patients and their families. Last year, she and her father traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. Sen. David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Austin Scott about funding for childhood cancer. Less than four percent of the research budget for the National Cancer Institute is allocated to childhood cancers.

That’s why it never has been about the golf – the long putts and bunker shots. Joe has strengthened his resolve to help other children in memory of his granddaughter.

“It’s very emotional, but I can feel Mary Elizabeth smiling down on me,’’ he said. “I know she is proud of what we are doing. Her greatest wish was that no other kid would have to go through this.’’

It has been amazing how a little girl could have such a big impact on so many.

Ed Grisamore teaches journalism at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears on Sundays in The Telegraph.