By Kris Leonhardt

SPENCER – A community-led fundraiser will be held Dec. 1 in honor of a young man battling an inoperable tumor.

Morgan Gorst, a seventh grade student at Spencer Middle School, was diagnosed at the start of the school year with Glioblastoma.

“On Aug. 31, Morgan went into the doctor because he was not feeling well. He had been throwing up, feeling nauseous, and had a headache,” Becky & Jim Gorst said. “The doctor noticed right away that his face had a slight drooping. An MRI was ordered as they were thinking it was Lyme’s disease but it turned out to be a brain tumor. On Sept. 3, he was taken into surgery and had a shunt placement done. On Tuesday, they did another surgery to place another shunt and did a biopsy. The biopsy came back with a diagnosis of Glioblastoma.”

The Gorsts said that the tumor is considered inoperable and Morgan has started a nine-month treatment cycle consisting of chemotherapy and radiation.

“He has been incredibly strong throughout this process and really worked to maintain the lifestyle he knows by going to school every day and playing basketball,” the Gorsts said. “We as parents are so proud of him because this has all been very hard for him. He’s had to start over in a lot of ways because he was so sick and tired for such a long time that his strength took a while to get back.”

The Dec. 1 fundraiser is being planned by the “MorganStrong” committee, which organizer Tracey Ackman said is “a group of local community people who decided we needed to do something to help out the Gorst family financially.”

The fundraiser will be held at Belvedere Supper Club, M329 State Hwy 97, Marshfield, from 3 p.m. – midnight.

“We will be raffling off over 100 awesome kid and adult baskets,” Ackman said. “The fundraiser will have three levels of basket raffles – Regular, Premium, and Platinum. We will have a couple games that go with specific prizes and 50/50 raffles. There will be free food, soda, and beer with a suggested donation of $5 per person. There will be a DJ. Face painting and balloon animals for kids.  This will be a very fun night.”

The MorganStrong committee is currently seeking baskets for the raffle, gift certificates, and monetary donations to help with the event.

For more information, contact the committee by email morgangorststrong@gmail.com or call
Stacy Wolf at 715-207-5960 or Jeana Bennett 715-503-5311.