fight against leukemia

friends of the reitberger family, cancer, what a horrible word. when you hear that word associated with a loved one, it is devastating. james "dj shamis" reitberger has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. james is a member of orange elks lodge #135 and follows a great family tradition as a member of an organization that provides exactly what james needs from us "charity" james reitberger sr. is a past orange lodge trustee, john reitberger is the current exalted ruler of orange lodge, mike "whitey" reitberger was a past exalted ruler, james's uncle, lenny perna jr. is a past trustee, anthony and lenny perna iii, james' closest cousins both past officers. as a family that knows what it takes to help others, they ask that you do the same for james now. james was recently diagnosed and has been receiving chemotherapy to help treat this terrible disease. he is currently in hackensack university medical center and will be for quite some time. james is an older brother and mentor to dillon, 15 years old and bryan 11 years old. he is the son of james reitberger and anita ricciardelli along with his step mom cindy. james has many uncles, aunts, cousins and friends who we need to be there in this time of need. to all of our local vendors and businesses, we hope to be able to depend on you for help in the form of donations or gifts towards the tricky tray we will be running on april 26, 2014 at the james "dj shamis" reitberger fundraiser at orange elks lodge, 475 main street, orange, n.j. 07050. we hope that local restaurants will help us with food donations for the april fundraiser. it will take a collaborative effort from all of us to help make sure that james can get the care he needs. james currently has no medical coverage and must rely on us to raise the necessary funds to insure that he gets the testing, the best doctors and finally the bone marrow transplant he will surely need. it takes money to test for donor matches; money that james does not have. we need to raise the money to make sure james has a fighting chance against this terrible sickness. i want to thank everyone in advanced for your caring and generous donations and your help in the worst of times for the reitberger family, the ricciardelli family and all of james' close friends and loved ones.