COMMUNITY
THE MESA TRIBUNE | JUNE 12, 2022
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Students run group to fight brain tumors BY MELODY BIRKETT Tribune Contributor
T
he statistics are alarming. Within the next 12 months, over 200,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor. Brain tumors are now the leading cause of solid tumor cancer deaths in children through high-school age and the secondleading cause of cancer deaths in young adults ages 20 to 39. Even benign brain tumors. Due to their location, they are difficult to treat and often severely compromise the quality of life. The cure rate for most brain tumors is significantly lower than that for most other types of cancer. Amid these gloomy statistics, a nonprofit was started in Arizona in 2002 to raise funds for brain tumor research. It was founded shortly after three students from the Paradise Valley School District were diagnosed with brain tumors and ultimately died. Students Supporting Brain Tumor Research is the largest stu-
Brie Dragonattie, assistant principal of Notre Dame Preparatory, is flanked by Radia Wong, left, and Lillian Mueller, a member of the student-run nonprofit Students Supporting Brain Tumor Research. (Special to the Tribune) dent-run non-profit in Arizona. So far, it has raised over $3.7 million.
The organization provides opportunities for students to work with managers
of large companies, do media interviews, talk with researchers and observe live brain surgery. Ayush Kothari, who just graduated from BASIS Mesa and is the current co-chair for SSBTR, already has plans to extend the organization’s reach to other states. He joined the group three years ago, explaining that it was disturbing enough “to hear about statistics and what demographics brain tumors affect and how they disproportionately impact the youth population.” But when Ayush talked to a survivor, he decided to join SSBTR and applied to become an ambassador. “Having that connection with the person who was a survivor and hearing about their journey, the emotions, brought an incredibly personal touch which statistics themselves weren’t able to provide,” Ayush said. “Just hearing that story is what made me want to become involved in the organization.”
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Mesa band pilots through local music scene BY ALEX GALLAGHER Tribune Staff Writer
M
arcus Reardon had been studying sports journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and living in a dorm at Taylor Place in downtown Phoenix when he had a conversation that changed his life. “I remember there was a very pivotal conversation I had with someone on my floor where I asked him ‘what kind of music do you listen to?’ ‘I don’t listen to music … I’m a sports guy,” the Mesa man recalled. “I realized very quickly that the people at the top of the sports journalism world are people who literally wake up in the morning and their first thought is sports and I’ve just never thought like that.”
Mesa-based rap-rock group This Modern consists of guitarist Tre Scott, programs and vocalist Timo Willsey, vocalist Marcus Reardon and drummer Sean Whiteman. (Amar Camisi/ submitted photo)
Instead, something else was at the forefront of Reardon’s mind at every waking moment of the day: Music.
As students were rehearsing scripts or watching sports religiously, Reardon confined himself to his dorm to make beats
and hone his craft as a rapper. After graduating from in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in sports journalism, Reardon began chasing his passion for music. Through the connection of his cousin Thomas, he met Tim “Timo” Willsey — who graduated from ASU in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable energy, materials and technology — and Sean Whiteman — an alumnus of Mesa Community College. Willsey and Whiteman had been veterans of the local metal scene and were looking to start a new project that Reardon’s vocal style suited. “I wanted to make a change,” Whiteman said. “I was ready to get away from metal music and like really heavy stuff. I
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