Fundraiser Saturday in memory of girl, '9 and three quarters,' who died of brain cancer

Tue, Nov 3, 2009    to del.icio.us

Grace Thatcher's tomboyish spirit sparked smiles on the faces of her friends and family.

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The Hudsonville girl who died in 2007 from a brain tumor didn't like the color pink or "girly things," but rather enjoyed hunting and catching frogs, climbing trees and creating artwork, said her parents, Deb and John Thatcher.

"She was just a delightful child," Deb said. "She loved frogs."

The second annual scholarship fundraiser in honor of Grace — who would have been 12 — will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at Harbourfront Grand Hall above Porto Bello restaurant. Tickets are $25 or $160 for a table of eight.

The annual fundraiser, in collaboration with the Grand Haven Community Foundation, seeks to raise scholarship money that will be awarded to one Grand Haven High School and one Hudsonville High School senior each year beginning in 2016 — the year Grace would have graduated from high school.

"She was a very good student and loved school," said her father, Grand Haven Area Public Schools Assistant Superintendent John Thatcher. "She was a feisty little lady who fought for a year and didn't win. She wanted to live a normal life. She didn't want anyone to know she had a brain tumor."

Doors for the fundraiser open at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m., a live auction at 8:15 p.m. and a raffle at 9:15 p.m. The band, Entourage, will also be playing throughout the event.

"The purpose is to remember Grace — to keep her memory alive and her love of learning," Deb Thatcher said. "We'd like to raise enough to have an ongoing annual college scholarship in her name."

Last year's inaugural scholarship fundraiser raised $17,600 — in addition to $2,000 raised by Georgetown Elementary in Hudsonville — with about 200 people in attendance.

Grace was diagnosed with diffuse pontine glioma — a tumor located in the brainstem at the base of the brain — when she was 8 years old. She died 13 months later in June 2007.

"It's a tumor that kids just don't survive," said John Thatcher, explaining that doctors had given Grace one year to live after treatment.

Although she was very ill for most of the last 13 months of life, Grace was able to participate in one of her favorite fall sports: soccer.

"She loved soccer," said Deb Thatcher, who has been living with a different type of brain cancer for 12 years. "That was an important goal for her."

Doctors discovered a brain tumor in Deb, a high school teacher who teaches emotionally impaired students, when Grace was 10 months old.

"Mine is in a different location in the brain that's not necessarily survivable, but has longevity," Deb said. "It was a difficult moment in my life because I didn't know the urgency and I didn't know if I'd be returning to my children."

With three much older siblings, Grace — adamant that she was 9 and three quarters old— felt at ease among older children and had a great sense of self, her mother said.

"She was 9 going on 17," she laughed.

When the Thatchers bought Grace a small, brown rabbit after learning her tumor had shrunk one-third in size — a good friend of hers wanted a rabbit, too.

"She said (to her friend), 'If your brain tumor shrunk by one-third, then your dad would buy you a rabbit, too," John Thatcher recalls Grace saying matter-of-factly. "She always had a sense of humor.

"The one worst thing a parent can do is forget about their child," he added. "We don't want her to ever be forgotten."

The Thatchers will always miss their daughter's laughter and sharing in the family's "average day" routine.

"That stuff is tremendously special," Deb said.

For more information or to purchase tickets for the fundraiser, call Dottie Bishop at GHAPS at (616) 842-8824, or visit www.gracethatcher.org

Tickets will also be sold at the door.