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By Christian Simmons

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — True love for the citizens of our communities can be shown in many ways.

For Izial Williams, his Clemmons community showed their love by assisting this boy with a devastating problem.

Izail has cancer.

Before the diagnosis, Izial lived the life of a blessed two-year-old boy.

“Izial Williams is your typical two-year-old boy, independent, ready for fun, full of energy and a joy to be around,” said Suzanne Howard of the Clemmons Moravian Church. “He loves going to church and anything pertaining to church, especially dressing up in suits and preaching around the house. He loves music and all instruments. He like sports, playing with bubbles, pretending like he is a barber or pretending like he is cutting grass. He watches church shows on TV. He loves Blippi, Garfield Movie, 101 Dalmatian Movie, and Toy Story.”

Just when life began to show this boy love, it also showed him pain and heartbreak.

“Unlike your typical two-year old, this sweet boy was diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma in May,” Howard said. “The week following the diagnosis, he was scheduled for surgery to remove the 10-centimeter tumor that was found. Ever since, he has been undergoing chemo treatments not only at Brenner, but at home as well. Unfortunately, recently, Izial had a follow up scan, and it showed that the the tumor returned. Izial has now completed his second surgery on Thursday, Aug. 29 to remove a 3 cm tumor. He has once again started chemotherapy to try to control the cancer.”

Fortunately, the Clemmons Moravian Church created an outreach program specifically for childcare.

“Clemmons Moravian Childcare began in 1984 as a part of an outreach ministry of Clemmons Moravian Church,” Howard said. “It has become a very reputable childcare center in our community and prides itself on the long-standing relationships that develop with the families served in the great Clemmons area. We not only have watched the childcare ministry grow but watched as services have extended to school-age care, thus remaining an integral part of the overall CMC ministry.” 

The Church’s Child Care Mission Statement reads: 

“The primary objective of Clemmons Moravian Church Childcare Center is to provide quality care for children as a part of the total ministry of Clemmons Moravian Church. Our goal is to promote spiritual, intellectual, social, physical and emotional growth in each child enrolled in our center.”

When asked about what the Church does for childcare, Howard indicated that it is a 5-star licensed child care facility, serving more than 100 families from infant through school aged, with more than 30 staff members. 

“TJ Keech, Izial’s mom, is one of our teachers here at CMCCC,” Howard said. “She has been a blessing to us the moment she stepped foot through the door, and continues to show up any chance she can to say hello, work a few hours, or just share a supportive word and friendly face to the children and staff. The children love her, the families love her even more, and she is truly an amazing person and in addition to our CMCCC family.”

In Izial’s case, they developed a fundraiser to help the family through this tumultuous time.

The childcare center will be hosting a community event, ‘A Playdate for Iz,’ with donations being accepted in Izial’s honor and all proceeds going to the family.

“We would open our new playground for community play, have local businesses we partner with create activity stations for the kids to enjoy, have snacks for sale, baskets to be raffled, have a Mini Cooper car show and will take donations that will directly benefit Ms. TJ and her family. We even plan to have the pink fire truck present. September is Childhood Cancer awareness month, and we not only would shed light on that, but directly impact a family, someone from our community, that is currently facing the hardships of this life altering situation,” Howard said. 

The playdate is scheduled for Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 

The fundraiser is set to help the family face this threat on a number of levels.

“TJ is unable to work full-time due to being Iz’s primary caregiver. We offer short-term disability as a benefit to our childcare teachers, but it does not apply to TJ, as the medical issue that would qualify her is with her son, and not her directly,” Howard said. “Therefore, she is unable to receive any benefits. With this recent unfortunate news of the recurrence, and even more uncertainty on the horizon, being a single mom of three, she is in need of additional support. The goal for the fundraiser is to both raise monetary funds to help Izial’s family through this difficult time and to show the family how much love and support they have in the Clemmons and CMCCC community.” 

For those who wish to contribute or even to find out more about Izial’s story and how the Clemmons Moravian Church is helping out, Howard said there is a GoFundMe page set up: https://gofund.me/d9946302.

In addition, checks may be made out to Clemmons Moravian Childcare with “Support for Izial” denoted on the memo line. Checks can be mailed to Clemmons Moravian Church, PO Box 730, Clemmons, NC 27012.

“We have had a nice response from the Clemmons business community in terms of support for this event,” Howard said. “However, we would welcome more local businesses. Any business that would like to show their support by donating a gift card to be raffled off as part of the basket raffle should contact Suzanne Howard at finsec@clemmonsmoravian.org. We plan to have a news presence and advertising for this event and will recognize all our businesses.”

The Clemmons Moravian Church Childcare website is clemmonsmoravian.org/childcare/