Taylor's Wish draws 2,000 supporters

There was fantastic cupport as more than 2,000 people gathered at Tien’s Place in Columbia Falls on Sunday for the Taylor’s Wish fundraiser.

Taylor, 17, a senior at Columbia Falls High School, has been battling spindle cell carcinoma — jaw-bone cancer — for about a year and a half. But her doctors at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota recently determined her cancer is no longer treatable.

It was June 2011 when Taylor noticed a growth above one of her teeth that she thought was a simple canker sore. It kept growing, though, invading her body at a fast clip, and by November she was headed to the Mayo Clinic, where surgeons removed three of her teeth and part of her jawbone. A second biopsy after that showed the cancer already had manifested itself in the area around her jaw.

Taylor then was transferred to Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she underwent eight months of extensive radiation and chemotherapy. The routine was five days in the hospital, then nine days out. She and family members stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in between treatment sessions.

Taylor, a middle blocker for the Columbia Falls Wildkat volleyball team, tried to play with the team this fall but wound up having to bow out.

Her father, Chuck Peterson, works as a diesel mechanic in Williston, N.D. He said he’s thankful his employer, McCody Concrete, is giving him as much time off as he needs to be with his daughter in the coming weeks.

“They’re behind me 100 percent,” he said. “They’re really family-oriented.”

McCody Concrete ordered 70 of the special T-shirts the Columbia Falls High School Key Club made in support of Taylor. The shirts carry a powerful message of support: “Courage Matters, Strength Matters, Taylor Matters.”

The outpouring of support from the Columbia Falls community has helped make this worst-case scenario a little easier, he said.

Maureen Windauer, who owns Tien’s Place along with her husband, Tien Windauer, also has set up an online auction at www.32auctions.com/taylorraepeterson, where people can bid on items for Taylor’s Wish.

The auction will run until Friday at 5 p.m. More than a hundred items were listed.

“The community is so incredibly supportive,” Windauer said. “People have volunteered to do dishes and bus tables” during Sunday’s benefit.

More than $40,000 has been raised to date.

Another event planned for Taylor is a gathering for family and friends from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, at Columbia Falls High School. It’s open to the public.