Moving for a Cure

Taylor County

brings support to local cancer patient

The Taylor County Moving for a Cure was held at the Medford City Park on Friday, May 14. With the money raised both leading up to and the evening of the event, the Committee expects to provide 40 individuals with $1,000 stipends. “We are very excited to be able to provide 40 stipends this year. This will be the largest number of allocations made since our committee’s inception,” said Carmen Thiede, Committee Chair. The event kicked off with the National Anthem provided by local talent, Brook Meyer. This year’s guest speaker was Dan Miller who shared his heartfelt journey with more than 400 people who came to the fourth annual Taylor County Moving for a Cure event. The organization is a restructure from previous cancer awareness events in the community, and the Committee’s desire to keep the money raised local. All monies raised will be allocated to cancer patients living within Taylor County who have gone through cancer treatments between May 2020 and June 2021. The money is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis and awarded regardless of income, insurance status, or where treatment is received. Applications are available starting June 1 from the Taylor County Health Department or TCMoving4Cure.com. Applications will be accepted until all funds are depleted.

This year’s top four fundraising teams were Sierra Pacific raising $7,475. Walking Warriors raising $3,950; Nicolet National Bank raising $1,823, and Wanke Builders at $1,261. We thank these teams for their outstanding efforts. “We appreciate all the teams and individuals that participated in our event and their fundraising efforts.”

Thiede said.

The event would not be a success without the support of sponsors. Gold sponsors were AbbyLand Foods, Aspirus Medford Hospital & Clinic, Forward Bank, K99/WIGM Radio, Lakeside Financial, Medford Lions, Nicolet National Bank, and Sierra Pacific Foundation.

“Many community businesses and members donated to our raffle ticket prizes and giveaways. Without these people our event could not continue to be successful.

We appreciate all the support, sponsors, volunteers, and participants who joined together in making our 2021 a success,” Thiede said.

Individuals wanting to donate during the year may do so by contacting a committee member on the TCMoving4cure.com website. Any money collected throughout the year is maintained until the next year’s event and included in that year’s allocations.

Next year’s event will be Friday evening, May 13, 2022.

Dan Miller, father of cancer survivor Jobe Miller was the featured speaker at the Taylor County Moving for a Cure event held Friday, May 14.

The following is the speech that he gave: John 15: 9 “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”Although I have been to a few walks in my day I have never been the speaker. I have also not listened very well, so if there was a speaker I have to be honest I was a bit unsure of what a good message would sound like.

Therefore, I did what I always do and decided I should let _________________________________________________________________

I believe Things happen for a reason. I truly believe that Miracles are all around us if we are willing to watch for them. In fact this past Sunday I was at church ____________________________________________________________

on the meaning. The reading was John chapter 15: verse 9-17, which starts with “as the Father loves me, so I also love you.” In hearing those words I knew I had the backbone for my message.

A Father’s love or A Father’s Journey. I thought to myself, I’m a father that loves my children deeply. God Loves his Son Deeply. O’ wait….He allowed His son to suffer and die to save us.... This honestly caused a ton of deep thought ...What in the world am I supposed to pray for:.. for my son to die and be with his true Father or to ______________________________________________________________

speech to give.

NO, it is exactly the right speech! A cancer

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and HOPE. Yes Hope! Through my son’s cancer journey I was faced with the possibility of having to give up my child and ________________________________________________________

countless arguments with myself over what I should be praying for: Jobe’s health or a chance for him to see God before do.

Having spent the last year walking this journey, I can tell you that this path does not begin with a diagnosis of cancer. Nor does it begin with a bunch of symptoms.

Rather, it begins with our past experiences and the perspective those experiences will place upon our heart as we encounter various parts of this journey. For me it began ____________________________________________________________

me wrong, there was lots of doubt and rebellion there too.

But, the supportive network was in place.

_ ____________________________________________

remember was my maternal grandmother. What sticks out most was that strawberry blonde wig she got for herself when she lost her hair... and her choice to NOT do Chemo treatments for a second time.(Who doesn’t want to try to live?) My second encounter was a big one that rocked my world. My wife DeAnna and I discovered that she had a tumor the size of a small watermelon growing that had enveloped one of her ovaries and the question of ever ________________________________________________________

tumor was cancerous but did not require any treatment other than removing it and ongoing 6 month monitoring.

I have to pause here and take you back to the reading from Sunday’s gospel ( John 15). It goes on to say, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love”. Crud here comes the doubt...I think we must all have these moments where we wonder if our wrong doing has caused something bad to happen. We wondered, what did we do wrong? Well thank goodness that we had that strong God connection because DeAnna and I knew that we just had to give this up to God. So in the hospital I went searching for the chapel and prayed my heart out asking God to save my DeAnna and give us the opportunity to have children.

Prayer Answered.

Along comes son number one. But what should we name him? Again drawing on our faith we went to ____________________________________________________

we were reminded of the story of Job, (Ya know, The guy who is blessed with riches to then have his health taken away again and again, yet, in the end has it all restored.) ________________________________________________________

exactly what we felt we had gone through.

Sorry Jobe, we didn’t realize that his story was going to be lived out through you.

This past September we got what I thought was

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COVID. It was the speculation that my son Jobe had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Little did I know that my dad would

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world once again. Yet, it also put in perspective everything that I believe and pushed me into a deeper relationship with my true Father. Yep..Back to John 15, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit... that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” UGH! Here is the dilemma. “What do I ask for?”

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deny Jobe a chance to go and be with God and now my Dad. As a Father, I should want what’s best. And isn’t that what God wants? As you can tell, I again spent a bunch of time praying on this. I even threw a couple of requests into my dad to see if he couldn’t do a little negotiating up in Heaven on Jobe’s behalf. (THANKS DAD!) What I continued to realize and discover throughout this time of prayer is that God was placing... in our lives a TON of people who have accepted the love of God and more importantly were responding to the love of GOD!

You see every cancer journey gives people the opportunity to respond to God’s love by Loving others. Whether it was Greg Werner who had made a connection with Jobe as a high school athlete and was _________________________________________________________

bound specimen of a son was withering away despite his dedication to a healthy lifestyle.

Or the nursing staff here at Medford Aspirus that understood our initial shock and just got things done for us with compassion and determination.

Or DeAnna’s cousin Jessica, Dr. Onitilo’s nurse practitioner, who pushed her team to make stuff happen and get a treatment plan rolling.

Or...Dr. Sharma - He is the kind of Doctor that makes an instant connection. Making us part of his family and guided us through Jobe’s treatment.

Or...Dr. Onitilo - For his constant puzzling and pushing for answers. His aggressive treatment plan. And the NO nonsense approach that Jobe needed.

Or… our school staff and the greater Medford community that reached out with overwhelming support for myself and family as we grappled with the news and then battled the treatments and all the ups and downs that come with Chemo.

Or…the meal train crew that started sending us more food than we could eat. I think we still owe Susie Doberstien something for all the trips she made to our front porch to deliver food.

Or...Jobe’s buddies and their families who worked to organize a fundraiser that will support Jobe long into his future.

Or...Abe and Martha (Jobe’s Siblings) for distracting him with games...challenging his brain with math questions or mechanical puzzles...and just sitting with him to show their love. Or... the countless strangers that heard of Jobe’s story and reached out to us through well wishes and prayer. Like…”Sheila” - A perfect stranger going through chemo treatments on the same day, same place and same time as Jobe. She always reached out with a smile to share a chemo story to help Jobe know he was not alone. Or Jenna…”Jobe’s Girlfriend” She has been his lifeline through all of this. Always available with FaceTime, Snapchats or phone calls. The person that Jobe could just cry with. He needed your attention and you gave all the while you continued with college and kept him connected to his “real life”! Or...Michelle and CALE (One of Jobe’s Godmothers and her son) Having experienced their own cancer journey with Cale being diagnosed w/hodgkins just one year prior to Jobe, they have been a source of strength and have shown the light on what we have and will be going through. Or all of you who have had the same or similar cancer journeys. Your stories and true understanding of what Jobe was/is going through made all of us know we weren’t alone. Each one of these individuals and so many more have had an impact on our lives and will forever be connected to us. This experience has pushed me to more deeply accept the love of God along with the love and generosity of people like you. I now know that through tragedies like this God works to call each of us to a deeper love for him and a deeper love for one another.

He has chosen you! Thank you to all of you for coming out today and responding to the LOVE of God.

— Dan Miller, father of cancer survivor Jobe Miller

DeAnna Miller & Stacey D oriot

Pictured Left to Right: Jenna Sheen, Lauren Meyer, Jobe Miller, & Abe Miller

Story by Brian Wilson | Page Design by Megan Graff