Local schools rally around two families fighting childhood cancer during rival football game
PERRYVILLE, Mo. (KBSI) – Two schools showed up and showed out at the St. Vincent football game.
Two schools that are usually rivals came together for one cause: to raise funds for childhood cancer.
Last Friday September 5, 2025 the St. Vincent football team of Perryville played against the Valle football team of Ste. Geneieve. Stands were packed, and people were in full Friday night football mode, but this particular game had a little something extra as both schools had students on childhood cancer journeys and funds were being raised for both families.
Sonya Dobbelary is the St. Vincent Director of Advancement and Enrollment Development she shares how this idea came to light.
“Amanda Winkler, her son, plays, for St Vincent. He’s actually one of our football captains and she suggested that we do, a childhood cancer awareness night. Since we have a student at St. Vincent and one at Valle that are both fighting, leukemia” says Dobbelary.
14-year-old Nolan and 4-year-old Rory have both been diagnosed with leukemia. Nolan has gone through several years of treatment and is almost done with his treatment, Rory was recently diagnosed and just beginning his journey.
Through the football game $1,963 was raised and given to both families. Dobbelary says these efforts show the power of community and schools working together.
“Well, the biggest thing we found is that just, above and beyond collecting money for these families was afterwards putting this out on social media and the amount of people that really saw that these two schools could come together for a bigger cause” says Dobbelary.
The giving doesn’t stop there. Nolans family made the decision to donate their portion of the funding to 4-year-old Rory’s family and Nolan’s mom Roxanne Joggerst says it was Nolan’s idea.
“It’s a lot to take on whenever you have a medically complex child, and then you’ve got other ones at home that you’re trying to balance. So, Nolan, you know, we’re nearing the end, thankfully, of Nolan’s treatment, so he wanted to just give it all to Rory and his family because, you know, they’re just starting and treatment for a while you know, can be anywhere from 2 to 5 years. So, it’s, it’s quite the haul” says Joggerst.
Joggerst shares that community support helped her through the tough times in her son’s treatment. She says Nolan is slowly starting to get back into the swing of things.
“He’s participating in whatever sport he can with his port still and he’s, you know, limited. You can’t do contact or anything like that. But he still works out with the teams and friends through practices. So, he’s very involved and he’s feeling pretty good. So, were counting that as a win” says Joggerst.
