Friends to host Rock-a-thon for a local cancer victim

Friday, October 5, 2012
At the Rock for Laura rock-a-thon this weekend, Jodie Clodfelter (left) and Chassity Hawkins will host a 24-hour rocking chair marathon from noon Saturday to noon Sunday at Shabby & Sheek Spa~Tan. The event will raise money for Laura Pope, a local community member suffering from cancer.

ROACHDALE -- Laura Pope, a teacher's aid at North Putnam, will have a community looking out for her this weekend.

Pope, battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, will have a rock-a-thon in her honor beginning noon on Saturday outside Shabby & Sheek Spa~Tan in Roachdale.

Rock for Laura will ask participants to donate $5 for the chance to rock in a rocking chair for 30 minutes.

All the donations will be used to help pay for the next round of chemotherapy.

"We want them to go for 24 hours. No stoppin' the rockin'," spa owner and event organizer Jodie Clodfelter said. "We need people here in the middle of the night to keep us going."

Rock for Laura will last through the night and will have entertainment and a number of prizes, drawings and contests.

Pope, a mother of three, has been an aid for a number of years and has become an important part of the community, Clodfelter said.

Shabby & Sheek is located at 5 W. Home St. on U.S. 236 in Roachdale, just west of the Casey's gas station.

Four rocking chairs, donated from around town, will be set up outside the spa.

Bowls of chili, cooked outside in a kettle, will be available for $1.50 each, along with bags of cookies and cups of hot coffee and cocoa.

There will be a 50/50 raffle, as well as prize baskets for Thirty-one, Mary Kay and Shabby & Sheek.

Clodfelter will also be buzzing heads for $5.

Although there will hopefully be music, Clodfelter said, the rock-a-thon, four rocking chairs going continuously for 24 hours, is not meant to be misleading.

"I grew up with rock-a-thons," Clodfelter said. "That (sitting in a rocking chair) is what rock-a-thons were in the 80s."

Clodfelter is accepting donations for any, she said, including cookies, chili supplies, napkins, bowls, hot chocolate and coffee.

Those who are unable to attend the event can send monetary donations in the form of a check made out to Laura Pope and sent to Shabby & Sheek Spa~Tan, P.O. Box 378, Roachdale, IN, 46172.

Donations will be given to Pope on Sunday.

In the event of bad weather, the event will be moved inside.

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