'Porters For Porter' Aims To Help Colorado 4-Year-Old Fighting Cancer
ARVADA, Colo., (CBS4) – An Arvada brewery gathered the community together to raise money for a 4-year-old with leukemia on Saturday. His name is Porter Johnson.
CBS4 introduced you to him in November of 2017.
The fundraiser took place all-day Saturday at Odyssey Beerwerks on W. 56th Avenue in Arvada.
One of the employees, Amanda Hendrix, used to work in the emergency room with one of Porter's moms and saw how hard his cancer has been on the family.
Earlier this year, she pitched the idea of a fundraiser to her new boss.
"So, 10% of what we sell today in the taproom will be donated directly to 'Porter's Supporters' to offset medical costs and things that he's incurring during his last half of chemo treatment," Hendrix said.
As the beer flowed inside the brewery, Porter was pre-occupied with a toy bow and arrow outside in the parking lot. The 4-year-old was gleefully oblivious to the situation, which his two mothers said is not unlike every other day.
"He doesn't really know any different," said Sarah Porter. "He thinks everybody has a port for chemo and he thinks everybody takes chemo every day."
Porter was diagnosed with cancer at 2-years-old. Doctors predicted he'd need three years of treatment.
"He has chemo every day and then he has a spinal tap every three months," Sarah said.
The ongoing hospital visits and medical costs have been difficult on Porter's mothers. They've juggled work and Porter's needs the best they can.
"We try and split shifts. So I will work the first half of the week and his other mom will work the second half of the week, but it's a shot in the dark," she said.
Porter still has about a year of chemo to go. According to his mothers, doctors are hopeful he will win the battle against cancer. In the meantime, he has more support than he knows what to do with.
"It's really awesome to be able to give back, especially to a family that I know through their work gives back to the community as well," Hendrix said.
The brewery says they raised $2,300. It's a combination of proceeds from the taproom and money donated in a silent auction.
"It means the world to us. It means, like not even monetarily, but physically and emotionally we love to have the support," Sarah said.
If you missed out, there is also a GoFundMe set up under the name "Porter's Supporters."
