Saturday event will support former high school student
Totality Martial Arts and Rappahannock County community volunteers will host “Kicking Out Cancer,” a community event Saturday to raise awareness for childhood cancer and support a local family battling the disease.
The free event at the Sperryville Schoolhouse was organized to support José Canseco Martinez, a recent graduate of Rappahannock County High School, who was diagnosed with leukemia at the end of his senior year. The event closes out Childhood Cancer Awareness month.
Canseco had been active on the Rappahannock soccer team and trained in kickboxing with Totality Martial Arts in Sperryville.
Lynnie Genho, a key organizer, said her sons are friends with Canseco, and when she heard about his diagnosis, she wanted to support the family through its difficult time.
Her daughter, Anne, is a survivor of childhood cancer, and she said the support they received from the community made a “massive difference” in their cancer journey. Genho said oftentimes, less resources are available to “adolescent young adults” with cancer, the age category Canseco falls into.
Genho said she wanted to do something to help, but didn’t know where to start on her own. But when she ran into Smith Cliffton, assistant coach with Totality Martial Arts, and he mentioned the idea of sparring and kickboxing classes in support of Canseco, she teamed up with Totality Martial Arts and Stonewall Abbey Wellness in Sperryville to organize an event.
“They all came together, and they said, ‘Yeah, let’s do something,’” Genho said. “And now, we’ve got all these families that are coming together . . . people started coming out of the woodwork wanting to help. You don’t realize how many people childhood cancer touches.”
The event, made possible by a Better Together grant from the PATH Foundation, will include a free lunch, bake sale, face painting, pickup soccer and kickboxing and sparring classes led by Totality Martial Arts. Genho said all donations collected at the event will directly support Canseco and his family.
“You need a community to get through this,” Genho said. “And that’s really what the purpose is, to show José’s family that they have a community here in Rappahannock, and everybody’s pulling for them.”
The event will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Martial arts classes start at 10 a.m. Donations will be collected at the event, and online at totalitymartialarts.org. The event will go on rain or shine, but if it’s raining, the event will be moved to Reynolds Memorial Baptist Church in Sperryville, Genho said.
Sign up for Rapp News Daily, a free newsletter delivered to your email inbox every morning.
