For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD – “Hearing that your child has cancer is every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Security Health Plan Senior I.T. Project Manager Derek Dieringer.

Dieringer’s son, Ryan, was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma when he was 16.

Ewing’s is a particularly rare form of bone and soft tissue cancer that typically affects children and young adults – only about 200 children are diagnosed with it each year in the U.S. – so Derek and his wife, Becky, struggled to find information on the disease.

“Then, we stumbled on the 1 Million 4 Anna Foundation,” said Derek. The parent-run, Texas-based foundation gave the Dieringer family so much support that they continue to invest in the organization annually with their own money.

This year, Derek also nominated the 1 Million 4 Anna Foundation to receive Security Health Plan’s monthly $1,000 Employee-Driven Corporate Giving Award in February.

The funds will be used to help a Wisconsin recipient, depending on his or her needs: partial funding of a college scholarship, family monetary assistance for a Wisconsin teen battling cancer, or a donation of spirit-lifting packages for teens fighting cancer at one of the area children’s hospitals.