Several Revere High School students have created a memorial and kickball tournament to honor the memory of a classmate who passed away last year.

To earn her Girl Scout Gold award, senior Hailee Zendlo created a bench and garden behind the baseball and soccer fields in honor of Kasey J. Lee, a Revere student who passed away from cancer during the summer of 2012. Zendlo spoke on why she created the memorial.

“I selected this project because of my desire to honor such an amazing student, sister, daughter and friend. Kasey, a kind, dedicated student whose first thoughts [were] geared toward helping others, fought a tough battle with cancer in the fourth grade and prevailed. Later, during her sophomore year, she again fell ill and passed away. I want the memorial to remind others of her bravery and kindness and to inspire others to perform caring acts, no matter how small, to improve the quality of life,” Zendlo said.

Zendlo explained how she built the memorial and why.

“I raised money and received donations from many community members to finance the materials. Then, I recruited friends and family to help with the construction over the summer,” Zendlo said.

Senior Christianos Burlotos also created The Kick It Tournament for Kasey Lee. Kick It for Cancer is a fundraising program that raises money for children’s cancer research. Burlotos discussed why the tournament was created alongside senior Joel Gerberich.
“[Gerberich] and I began volunteering with Kick It as freshmen. After working several tournaments and seeing how fun it was, we knew we had to bring it to RHS,” Burlotos said.

RHS French teacher Diane Gerspacher was the teacher adviser of the tournament. Burlotos also voiced what went into the creation of the tournament.

“After getting [the tournament] approved by [principal Phil King] and making Gerspacher the teacher adviser, we got together a committee of people who we knew could help us get this done,” Burlotos said.

The committee of people working with Kick it for Kasey Lee included seniors Maddie Holvey, Ben Sustersic and Joel Gerberich as well as juniors Miranda Koewler and Sam Sustersic. Koewler explained the goals she had for the tournament.

“I hope the tournament influences people to gather together to help a good cause against pediatric cancer that has affected many in the Revere community,” Koewler said.

The Kick It tournament took place on Sunday, October 13th at Revere High School.