Story and photos credit to Gary Cosby, Jr. of the Tuscaloosa News

Seven-year-old Kaiden Abston walked through a throng of cheering ball players and cheerleaders at Shelton State Community College with an amazed look on his face. The students gave the child high-fives, held signs with his name on them, and cheered him on as he entered the room.

Kaiden is battling leukemia and is now in remission. He was coming to a Monday ceremony where the Shelton State athletics program adopted him through a program administered by the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, which pairs pediatric cancer patients with college and professional sports teams as a way of boosting the child's morale.

Cara Crosslin, Shelton State athletic director, said, "Our middle name is community. We are not anything without the community of Tuscaloosa and the surrounding area and people in the community need us like we need them. We want to serve, and this is something we can do to help him get through the process of what he is going through."

Crosslin said the Alabama Community College Conference Commissioner Dean Myrick introduced the program at a meeting of athletic directors and she knew Shelton had to be involved in the program. The Friends of Jaclyn founder, Dennis Murphy, found Kaiden and got in touch.

Kaiden's mother, Amanda Bell said she discovered her son was ill in May 2021. They visited several doctors but could not pin down the problem. She had her son with her in Tennessee where she was doing a travel nursing contract when doctors found the leukemia.

"I took him to a doctor up there, so they thought he maybe had sickle cell or some kind of blood disorder, but when I saw the labs the next morning, I knew. I took him straight to Children's (of Alabama) hospital and they diagnosed him then. Ninety-seven percent of his blood had cancer in it," Bell said.

Kaiden rang the bell, a traditional signal that someone is cancer-free, at the first of August. He won't be declared officially cured until he has been cancer-free for five years. Kaiden is a first-grade student at Faucett-Vestavia Elementary School in Northport.

"It means everything to us for Kaiden to be adopted by Shelton State. It gives us something to look forward to and somebody for him to interact with. He hasn't been able to go to school and make friends, so this is awesome," Bell said.

Bobby Sprowl, Shelton State's baseball coach, said he believes that the relationship the sports teams are developing with Kaiden will help the players as much as it helps the child.

"I've seen a lot of young kids like this, and they are the happiest kids in the world. We let little things bother us, it could be anything from any injury to losing a girlfriend to not going to church on Sunday, but we need to reshape our young people in America today. It all starts with having something to fire you up. This should fire you up a little bit, you know. My God, this kid has cancer, and he is a happy young guy. I hope it comes across (to the players) that no matter how bad it is, it isn't that bad."

ACCC Commissioner Dean Myrick said that no one wants a child to have cancer but since it happens, he wanted to get the community colleges in the state involved in the program.

"It gets our kids involved in something outside the gym, outside the ball field. Sports is more than a game and you learn so much more through something like this than you do in any athletic venue," Myrick said.

Shelton is the third community college in Alabama to participate in the program. Myrick said that due to the number of childhood cancer patients in Children's of Alabama hospital in Birmingham, he anticipates that every school that wants to participate will be paired with a childhood cancer patient. The ACCC is the first junior college conference in the nation to get involved with the program.

Shelton State women's basketball player Kaleah Taylor is one of the student athletes who will be involved with Kaiden.

"I think it will be an opportunity for us to impact the life of someone else, which is something we look forward to doing. It gives us another identity off the court as we work to help others," Taylor said.

The Jaclyn Foundation was started after Jaclyn Murphy, oldest daughter of Dennis Murphy who founded the organization, developed a brain tumor. Murphy, who lives in New York state, got connected through a friend to the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team. His daughter was an avid player, and they began a correspondence while she was undergoing treatment.

Murphy said that during his daughter's recovery he was constantly being asked about who she was texting with, and as other children and their families found out what was going on, a new calling for his life emerged. The foundation now is helping over 1,000 people battling childhood cancer. He connects children with any team willing to participate, from colleges through the professional ranks.

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