At Utica High School, during the week of September 23 – September 27 Utica wanted to honor junior Tyler Trotto for his courageous battle he had victoriously won against Leukemia this past summer, and to show our support for the people who have also struggled with childhood cancer. This entire Gold Week spreads awareness for childhood cancer.
Utica High student Tyler Trotto was diagnosed with Leukemia on March 24th, 2022, and had to go through 2 ½ years of treatment before beating it this summer on July 26th, 2024. Junior Tyler Trotto said, “It felt amazing to beat cancer it was a relief to finally be done with treatment, I already am starting to feel better, and the side effects are all going away.”
For the first day of gold week students were given bracelets as soon as they walked into school, so they could show their support for Childhood Cancer. The bracelets came in a few different colors such as gold, white and black. Most if not all of the students had one on to show their support for Tyler and Childhood Cancer awareness.
For the second day of gold week students were given the opportunity during there lunch hours to buy gold shirts to show awareness for Childhood Cancer. The shirts have the message “Fight the fight” and are only 10$ for each shirt which is a very good deal for students. Students who buy the shirts would wear them for the Varsity football game the Friday of gold week.
On the third day of gold week all third hour classes were asked to give donations that would go to kids with Childhood Cancer. All together we ended up raising one thousand dollars in classroom donation and two thousand dollars in total sales from shirts, donations, etc. The fourth day of gold week was the last day of T-shirt sales to for the Varsity football game on Friday against L’Anse Cruese.
On day 5 of gold week students came to school with their gold week shirts to support Childhood Cancer awareness. Students also all wore their shirts in the student section for the Varsity football game Utica against L’Anse Cruese. Tyler Trotto got to walk on the field with the team, have an announcement at halftime and even the coin toss!
Junior Tyler Trotto said, “It was a very fun and exciting experience I enjoyed being on the field and going to do the coin toss. Lots of people came out to support me and wore the gold, it was awesome. Overall, it was an amazing experience.”
The final score of the game was 41-23 with the Utica Chieftains coming out on top winning the game. student section leader and Senior Niko Lijb said, “The game was awesome I think everyone showed a lot of support for the team and for Tyler, I thought there was a really good show up too.” In all Gold week was a very successful way for the school to show their support for Childhood Cancer Awareness and Tyler.
