For more than 45 years, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis has treated any sick child, regardless of address or ability to pay.

Some of these children assuredly will benefit from fundraising tenacity of Madison students and staff. Carrying on tradition, all campuses and offices of Madison City Schools have collected donations recently for St. Jude.

The Madison district auctioned an autographed football from the first game between Bob Jones and James Clemens high schools. “Darren Charette won the football by donating $500 to St. Jude — very generous,” director of student services Dennis James said.

“Overall, the auction generated around $1,100 in donations. Our current donations as a team total $17,162.41,” James said. “We expect that we’ll approach $25,000 by the time everything is collected.”

“Cancer has touched many lives of people that we know,” Dr. Daphne Jah, principal of West Madison Elementary School, said. “For the past several years, I’ve been running in honor of Dylan, a former West Madison student. Last year, Kym Mittman and I ran for Dylan and Sasha from Athens. I’m happy to report both of them are doing very well.”

This summer, “one of our West Madison family members, Ross, found out he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He is putting up the good fight of faith. I’m running in honor of Ross this year,” Jah said.

“Ross, Sasha and Dylan are truly special children who are currently or have been patients at St. Jude. Their families (benefit) from contributions that you and I make to St. Jude,” Jah said. Like other colleagues, Jah will run the St. Jude half-marathon on Dec. 1 as a St. Jude Hero.

West Madison also conducted the “Adorable Pet Contest” with 38 entries, $5 per entry. For 50 cents per vote for St. Jude, students will select their favorite animal on Nov. 9. During Donuts for Dads on Nov. 15, any father, uncle or grandfather can donate to St. Jude and receive a donut and juice.

Residents can still donate at http://heroes.stjude.org/MCS.