Local basketball team holding fundraiser event to honor Thunder Ridge student with rare cancer

IDAHO FALLS — The Thunder Ridge High School boys basketball team is holding a “Pink Night” to honor and raise funds for a Thunder Ridge student battling cancer.

This is the team’s seventh annual “Pink Night,” which is a community cancer awareness and fundraiser event. It will take place during the Titan and Madison Bobcat basketball game, Monday, at Thunder Ridge. The freshman and junior varsity games will begin at 6 p.m. with the varsity game starting at 7:30 p.m.

Throughout the evening, funds will be raised for Dominic Nunez, a junior, who was diagnosed with stage four Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer that’s highly aggressive.

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“(Nunez has) played sports and has been affiliated with a lot of kids on the varsity program,” Thunder Ridge boy’s basketball head coach TJ Trane said. “(Pink Night is) a great opportunity to let the kids find ways to help and use their athletic platform to make this more known and to go out of their way to make Dominic feel special and put something together to help him as a community.”

A silent auction will start at 6 p.m., and will feature services and items donated by local businesses and community members. During the varsity game, a special halftime presentation will take place to honor Nunez and other local cancer patients.

Those who attend the event are encouraged to wear pink to show unified community support with a “sea of pink” in the gymnasium. Rockwell Homes will provide free “Pink Night” t-shirts to the first 500 attendees.

“Pink Night” is also being supported by The Shannon Wilker Foundation, which was organized in 2016 in honor of the late Shannon Wilker, who died from breast cancer in 2011. The foundation — which was founded by Shane Wilker, widower of Shannon — provides assistance to local cancer patients and their families through financial support for medical expenses, lodging, gas cards, day care, counseling and support groups.

“It’s a very special opportunity for the community to say, ‘Hey, let’s go with our neighbors and all get together and be there to support,’” Trane said about the upcoming event. “Even if they don’t donate, just be there to support and rally around one of our own.”

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