On Sunday, October 21st from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. many will gather at Stow-Munroe Falls High School to celebrate early Christmas for “Kourageous Keith”. Keith is 12 years old and is battling undifferentiated soft tissue sarcoma, a very rare childhood cancer. Keith loves Christmas, and his family recently decided to decorate their home for Christmas for Keith to enjoy, along with a few others on their street.
Kiely’s Lemonade Stand and More than a Wave, a Jeep charity group, planned this event initially as just a small parade of decorated Jeeps for Keith. Since making an event on Facebook, the post has gone viral and the community is rallying around Kourageous Keith’s early Christmas. After meeting with Stow City officials about logistics and plans, a much larger community event is now planned where the groups hope to raise funds to donate towards the family’s medical expenses.
A firetruck is scheduled to pick Keith up at home and take him to the high school around 5:45 p.m. where he will get to see more than 100 vehicles, many of which will be Jeeps, decorated with a Christmas theme. As the firetruck leaves, 50 vehicles, including a Stow-Munroe Falls School Transportation bus, will follow the truck back to Keith’s home where he will be met with Santa and elves from the North Pole as the parade of vehicles rides past his house. Residents and businesses located along the parade route are encouraged to light up their homes and decorate for Christmas for Keith to see.
It is important to remember that the family deserves their privacy so the community is asked to support the event by attending the activities at the high school or watching the parade along the route. The community should come to the high school to see all the decorated vehicles, buy Kourageous Keith t-shirts (sponsored by Long’s Shoes and made by Open Road Apparel) and decals, enjoy hot dogs and other snacks as well as other activities.
The group is hoping to have more than 100 vehicles park and display their Christmas themed decorations. A sign up can be found at Facebook More Than a Jeep Wave or interested parties can call Andrea at 330-388-8434 for information.
Donations to support the family can be made to the Stow-Munroe Falls Rotary Foundation with the notation of Kourageous Keith.