Southside Elementary hosts Go Gold Day

Southside Elementary Principal Allison Foster called Go Gold Day, which raises awareness and funds to fight pediatric cancer, "a way for kids to bring awareness, and a way they can embrace and understand that, even as children, that they can make a difference, and every little bit adds up."

Their individual efforts added up to a lot as a sea of gold shirts and attire was seen underneath the large cabana at Southside Elementary on Oct. 4, during a pep rally. 

Photo by Ian Swaby

Go Gold Day was started in 2017 at Southside Elementary after the school lost two students, Benjamin Gilkey and Avery Rann, to cancer earlier that year, and supports The Benjamin Gilkey Fund for Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research.

However, it has grown to encompass 18 area schools as far north as McNeal Elementary School in Lakewood Ranch and as far south as Atwater Elementary School in North Port.

The initiative has always been highly embraced at Southside, with the vast majority of students wearing the gold shirts, which are sold as a fundraiser, as well as taking other initiatives like collecting change to raise funds.

A student for whom the cause had personal significance was third-grader Alison Dragash, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age three, having since entered remission. She was accompanied at the event by her mother Alicia Radefeld.

"It's very emotional," Radefeld said. "On one hand, it's so sad that we have that we have to do this, but on the other hand, it's so beautiful and incredible and amazing. I really don't even have the words." 

Principal Allison Foster said the event can help a student like Lucas Ticola, a first-grader at the school currently undergoing cancer treatment, to know that "he's not fighting it alone, and that all the students in the school are behind him."