The Active Fight Against Cancer - Let's Help The Bolings

Hi, I'm Mike Yankanich, one of the Northern High School wrestling coaches. This spring, Richard Boling, the father of one of my wrestlers (Emily), was diagnosed with Stage 3 rectal cancer during a routine colonoscopy at 51 years old. I have more details on Richard's story below, but the point of this GoFundMe is to leverage the power of friends, family, and the Bolings' connection to the tight-knit wrestling, baseball, church, first responder, and educational communities of which they are a part to raise money to help defray the cost of their medical bills.

The Bolings did not ask for this, but knowing how much their family gives to the community through teaching, coaching, participating in their church, and volunteering at the fire department, it seems like a no-brainer to help them out in their time of need.

To encourage donations to this cause, I'm arranging the following in an Active Fight Against Cancer:

1.) The paddle date is TBD. I've been informed that the safety boat is currently down (better now than during the paddle), so I'm waiting to hear when it will be back up and running. As an alternative, I'm also looking for anyone in the Chesapeake Beach area that would be interested in taking on the role of the safety boat. We're running up against weather, so I hope this will come to a quick resolution. I am committed to completing the paddle and will update all as plans solidify.

I will attempt to paddle across the Chesapeake Bay and back on a paddleboard. I’m going to launch from Rose Haven Memorial Park and paddle across to Tilghman Island and then back. Depending on where I hit Tilghman Island, I should be expecting about a 20 mile round trip. To make this possible, Ron Gossard, Founder of Evolve Paddleboards in Ocean City, MD, donated a board and all of the gear needed to train and complete the event. We are an active community that lives near the water, please look into Evolve Paddleboards if you are in the market. I can tell you from my training that paddleboards are a fun way to get a great workout. In addition, the North Beach Fire Department, where Emily volunteers and is learning to become an EMT, has volunteered to be my safety boat for the trip. If the weather is favorable, I'm hoping to complete the trip in about 8-10 hours.

2.) On Saturday, 11/16/24 at 6:00 p.m., we will be having a Fundraising Dinner at City Sliders Fusion Cuisine in North Beach. In addition to letting us host this event at his restaurant, Owner Brian Yousefi will be donating a portion of the restaurant's daily take on Saturday to help support the fundraiser. Let's flood Brian's restaurant with friends, family, athletes, teachers and first responders to show our support! City Sliders is open until 10:00pm on Saturday. Let's celebrate Richard's good news with dinner and stay with good friends to close the place!

3.) On Sunday, 11/17/24 at 12:00p.m., we will be holding a fundraising disc golf tournament at Mellomar Golf Park. This is an event for the entire family. If you've never played, no problem, I have made arrangements with Josh Day of Innova Disc Golf to supply 3-disc starter kits to give to all who register. These sets normally retail for $30, but Innova will be giving them to us for just $10 each to help support the event.

4.) Team Involvement UPDATED -This portion of the fundraiser is being revised. There seems to be some red tape in getting schools to back a fundraiser for an individual, so we will retool this.

Donation Options (see ADDING "words of support" below):

1.) DONATE: If you want to DONATE to support the cause, pick an amount and go for it. If you want the donation to represent a team that you are on, make sure to enter "words of support" noting TEAM DONATION and the name of the team you would like to shout out as well as the city and state.

Example: "TEAM DONATION: Northern Wrestling - Owings, MD"

2.) DINNER: If you want to reserve a spot(s) for the DINNER at City Sliders, donate what you would like to the event and make sure to enter "words of support" noting DINNER, how many dinner spots you would like, and your name.

Example: "DINNER x3, John Smith"

Note: All DINNER participants will purchase their own food & drink the night of the event. This is helping us get a head count to give to Brian.

3.) DISC GOLF: If you want to register for the disc golf tournament, after you donate, make sure to enter "words of support" noting DISC GOLF, how many golfers, and their names. Each DISC GOLF registration is $35. $25 will go to the fundraiser and $10 will pay for each 3-disc starter set that you get to keep.

Example: "DISC GOLF x3, John Smith, Mary Smith, Jason Kelce"

As long as you put the proper notes in the "words of support", you can combine as many of the options above as you like. If you want to donate $20 as part of a team, reserve 2 spots for dinner and register 1 person for the disc golf tournament, it would look like this.

You would donate: $55

You would enter in "words of support": "TEAM DONATION: Northern Wrestling - Owings, MD, DINNER x2, DISC GOLF x1, John Smith"

More On Richard's Story: On 3/14/24, during a routine colonoscopy, doctors found a large tumor and informed Richard that they had found cancer and it had spread to his lymph nodes. After three appeals to his insurance company, Richard was denied proton radiation treatment and was instead assigned the less favorable traditional radiation treatment. Richard completed oral chemo at home twice a day and daily radiation treatments at Sibley Memorial Hospital for 6 weeks. Following those first treatments, Richard began oral chemotherapy with chemotherapy infusions at the hospital. His doctors wanted to be very aggressive with his therapy, but Richard was unable to have his last treatment due to the effects that it was having on his body, and the doctors were afraid of permanent damage. Richard has been fighting an infection for the past few weeks, but after a round of antibiotics, he should be ready for his MRI and CT scans on 11/4 to see if the treatments have killed the tumor or if Richard will need surgery to remove any remaining cancer.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Whether you are a friend, family member, current or former athlete, educator, first responder or have had cancer touch your life in one way or another, please consider donating to help show how powerful we are when we have each other's backs and take an Active Fight Against Cancer.

ADDING "words of support" using your receipt:

Scroll to the bottom of the receipt

Select "Add a comment" and sign into your GoFundMe account

Select "Edit", add a comment or make changes, and be sure to save

Final Note: If we are able to raise enough to cover all of the Bolings' medical expenses, all additional donations will be sent to the American Cancer Society. Let's make this happen.