4 minute read
Squires in Service: Keira Slonaker ’26
By Stephanie Leader
The Spirit of a Squire fights for something bigger than themselves. When Keira Slonaker ‘26 was diagnosed with a rare subtype of juvenile arthritis as an infant, it rapidly became a significant part of her life. “It affected my joints and my skin and tissues, so basically my entire body, which means my organs can be affected too,” she explained. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), juvenile arthritis (JA) is a rare disease, affecting 21 to 403 per 100,000 population. To find support to combat her diagnosis, Slonaker began attending Camp Victory at age eight, the only camp on the East Coast for children with JA. Now at age 16, Slonaker has the opportunity to become a camp counselor in training. One of the requirements to become a camp counselor is to complete a service project that benefits the Arthritis Foundation, and that was when Slonaker got to work crafting her service project idea and decided to get not just Delone Catholic involved but another local high school as well.
As a fan of participating in different color theme nights at Delone Catholic Athletics events, Slonaker decided to hold a “Green Out,” the color for the Arthritis Foundation, at the Jan. 27 basketball games against New Oxford. She sold the green t-shirts in homerooms at Delone Catholic and worked with school administrators at New Oxford High School to sell the t-shirts to students there too. “I thought, what better thing to do than something I love and incorporate it?” she remarked. She got to work thinking about the logistics of the project. “I wanted to do something all-inclusive…I definitely wanted to include both the Squire and the Colonial, considering it was something both Delone Catholic and New Oxford would be doing.” She formulated the design, using the Delone Catholic Squire and the New Oxford Colonial around a basketball, surrounded by the phrase Fight to Cure Childhood Arthritis.
“I reached out to the athletic director at New Oxford and asked, ‘Can we do this?’” Slonaker recalled. The athletic director talked to the basketball team, and soon ordered shirts for himself and the entire team. The sales of the shirts did not stop with the presale, as Slonaker set up a stand to sell the shirts at the Jan. 27 basketball games, where Squires would be competing in four games against the Colonials, and Delone Catholic alumni championship teams would be in attendance for a reunion. Attendees soon noticed the wave of green shirts and wanted in on the Green Out. “As students started arriving at the games, they realized they could purchase a shirt, that was when I started to see quite a few people wearing the shirts in the student section,” she said. “Mrs. Fuhrman even came up and bought a shirt for the Squire. That was really cool.”
Slonaker believes that the funds raised from the sale will make an impact, but the awareness raised among young people is just as important. “High school students and students in general are the future. For them to see the shirts and realize that this is going to a good cause, and not only see themselves wearing the shirts but their friends, coaches, and everyone in the gym means that you’re standing for what is right and raising awareness,” she said.
The result of the presale and basketball game sale was impressive, with Slonaker raising over $1,500 to benefit the foundation, with some sales still pending.
“The impact that I’m hoping to make is to show that even if you are young, you can still do something that is going to mean a lot and benefit a good cause,” she said. “I was only 15 at the time I decided this was something I wanted to do. Once people see the impact you make, they’re going to say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that was possible,’ but you know the word impossible just says ‘I’m possible!’”
