McKenzie Meningitis Foundation Volleyball Tournament March 21, 2015
October 29, 2014
The 13th Annual McKenzie Meningitis Foundation Volleyball Tournament will be held on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at the Wrangler Gym in Pinedale. Games start at 8AM.
The event is limited to 20 teams. Participants need to be high school age or older. Registration is $200 per team. All proceeds go to benefit the McKenzie Meningitis Foundation.
For more information and to register, call either Elisha Haley at 307-231-2230 or Paige Harrell at 307-231-2526.
________________________________________
Editor’s Note: The McKenzie Meningitis Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that was created in honor of the late McKenzie Carter Hartwig. McKenzie attended high school in Pinedale and graduated in 2001. After graduation, McKenzie became a freshman at the University of South Dakota on a volleyball scholarship. That fall in August, with school hardly having just begun, she attended a volleyball tournament in North Dakota with her college teammates. She suddenly became ill and died that same evening. She had contracted meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the spinal cord and brain. Sadly, McKenzie died of a vaccine-preventable disease.
Meningitis resembles the flu with nausea, high temperature, headache, neck stiffness, respiratory problems, drowsiness and bleeding under the skin. Many victims suffer permanent disabilities, such as hearing loss, blindness, brain damage, or limb amputation. Numerous cases of meningitis disease have led to death. Meningococcal meningitis strikes nearly 3,000 Americans each year. Military personnel and college freshmen are at a six-fold increased risk of contracting the disease because they are living together in crowded, communal quarters, lifestyle, and irregular sleep patterns. Meningococcal Meningitis is a vaccine-preventable disease, but many youth are not immunized.
McKenzie was the daughter of Laurie and Ken Hartwig of Pinedale who created the McKenzie Meningitis Foundation to provide funds for those who cannot afford to participate in the state vaccination program, or who are outside the age eligibility, but are still at risk. The annual McKenzie Volleyball tournament is held in remembrance of McKenzie and her love of volleyball, to help to raise funds for the Foundation to continue the cause of immunizing high school seniors against this vaccine-preventable disease.
|
