Local charity event to benefit ill child
Each year, on the anniversary of Lu-Lu’s Solitary Consignment shop, Luann Scoggin holds a charity fundraiser, and this time she’s going to hold one for a customer and friend whose son is fighting cancer.
Lu-Lu’s will hold its seventh anniversary fundraiser on Friday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its store at the North Shore Shopping Center on North Cleveland Avenue.
The event will raise funds for 4-year-old Aries Xavier Boriboun, who last year was diagnosed with stage 4 nueroblastoma cancer. He is in remission, but is still undergoing chemotherapy and has a stem cell transplant and radiation coming up.
The hope is that enough money will be raised so the child’s mother, Julie Padgett, will be able to spend the month with her son in the hospital instead of having to work.
When Julie, a single mother with three children, found out about the event, she was thrilled, said Susan Padgett, the grandmother and spokesperson.
“We’re very thankful she wanted to do it for her. I don’t expect to raise a lot, just gas money for her to get back and forth from the hospital would be great and maybe pay some bills,” Susan said. “She couldn’t believe a total stranger would do this for her.”
Aries will spend the next month at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., where he and his family live. He will undergo intense chemo, which has already resulted in sores on his mouth and throat.
Aries had the cancer in his abdomen at 18 months. It has since come back, this time going into his stomach and bones, making the prognosis more serious.
Susan, who is caring for her sick father and can’t leave Florida, has set up fundraising jars at Rosie’s Homemade Fudge inside the Shell Factory. When LuAnn Scoggin found out, she said she wanted to help.
“I figured I’d help her financially any way I could, and that’s the reason for the fundraiser,” Susan Padgett said. “They are the light of my life. They’re my grandchildren.”
The store will donate 10 percent of its proceeds from April 21 to 25 to the Padgetts, Scoggin said.
There will be silent auction items for people to bid on the day of the fundraiser, April 25, with a free gift everyone to comes, as well as light refreshments, she added.
Lu-Lu’s Solitary Consignment is currently accepting donations for the silent auction, which she hopes will be a success.
“We’re looking for auction items and people to bid on them. We’re hoping people come out, and we’ll be serving punch and cookies,” Scoggin said.
Susan Padgett is also asking for prayers for Aries, and she has gone to numerous churches in the area to get them involved in the prayer chain.
That is the reason Aries is in remission, Padgett said.
For more information call Lu-Lu’s at 656-0990 or the “Pray for Aries” page on Facebook.