During Tuesday night’s basketball games at Kenai Central High School, a fundraiser will be held for Zach Armstrong, a sophomore who plays for Kenai, and who in November was diagnosed with leukemia.
Called Zach’s Fight, the fundraising event will be held during all four basketball games between KCHS and Nikiski Middle/High School.
Desi Baker, who is an organizer for Zach’s Fight, said she has known Armstrong since he was a young boy playing Pop Warner Football.
“The whole Armstrong family is a pretty loved family in our sporting community,” she said. “Whether it’s football or basketball, track, cross-country, Zach’s done all of those sports and he is a really good kid. … It is definitely a tough situation that he’s walking through.”
Movement on a fundraiser started quickly after Armstrong’s diagnosis, Baker said.
Connecting the fundraiser with Tuesday’s basketball games was “the perfect time,” Baker said. Kids on both teams have played with and against Armstrong, and athletes on both sides of the gym are expected to wear Zach’s Fight shirts, she said.
Baker said the football team is contributing a Hawaiian dinner. The volleyball team is putting on a balloon pop, while cheerleading, track and others are also volunteering and helping out. The Facebook event description for the fundraiser says there will be a silent auction.
“People show up so graciously,” Baker said. “I’m just hoping to financially ease the burden on the family for the next four or five months.”
Baker said the event is a time for the community to come together and celebrate Zach and the Armstrongs.
An online fundraiser has also been running since December, under “Zach’s Fight” on GoFundMe. Donations total more than $5,000 as of Friday evening.
For more information, visit “Zach’s Fight Fundraiser” on Facebook. Basketball games are scheduled to start at 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
