Marlton administration bands together for Haddonfield freshman

Neon shoelaces are appearing everywhere in Haddonfield — and now in Evesham Township — in support of a local family and their son,

Colin Hough, 14, was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that attacks his soft tissue. The faculty members of Marlton Elementary School and Marlton Middle School have banded together and are selling neon Go4TheGoal shoelaces to raise money for the family.

Hough, who attended Marlton Elementary School, is now a freshman at Haddonfield Memorial High School.

“Laura Nicholls and I, who are both teachers at Marlton Elementary School, decided to bring this fundraiser into our school when we found out that Colin Hough, a former MES student, was diagnosed with cancer. Colin is only 14 years old,” MES teacher Cari Funk said. “This fundraiser was a huge success and we were able to raise over $1,500. On Tuesday April 20, which is the first day of spring, our student body and staff members will join together and wear our laces to show our support.”

Since that statement was made, the group has raised more than $2,000 for the Hough family.

A third of the sales go toward paying for the laces, a third goes to Go4TheGoal and the remaining third goes to the Hough family.

These days, it’s hard to walk a step or go into a classroom at the elementary and middle school without seeing a student sporting the neon shoelaces.

“We just got such huge interest in this and raised so much money through these laces, we really wanted the family to see this somehow,” Funk said.

The two teachers began selling the laces to teachers at the two schools first, before offering them to students.

So far, the teachers have sold hundreds of pairs of laces and opened up sales to students on March 20.

The generosity of the Evesham community has been overwhelming, Funk said.

“When opening envelopes and going through the order slips, I saw so many forms that said things like, ‘keep the change,’ ‘no change needed,’ ‘please donate the extra money,’ ‘I only want one pair, the rest is for donation.’ Many of these messages were even in the child’s handwriting. The generosity of the community was incredible,” Funk said.

The Haddonfield community also raised money for Hough and a Haddonfield Middle School student, Jason Garstkiewicz, as well through the Go4theGoal Foundation.

“The community’s response was immediate and remarkable.

Students held sales in the high school and middle school and in shops around town. “Within a week, we sold over 7,000 pairs of laces and raised more than $30,000 in lace sales and donations,” said Jean-Anne McMahon, a Haddonfield resident and friend of Jason’s family. “You can’t go anywhere in town without seeing someone wearing them.”

Based in Merchantville, the Go4theGoal Foundation is a 501©3, non-profit charitable organization founded in 2006 by Dr. Richard and Beth Stefanacci, soon after their oldest child was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

The foundation created “Lace-Up 4 Pediatric Cancer,” a program that provides brightly colored shoelaces to local sports teams to show their support for a cancer patient in their community.