Roughnecks rally around sick 6-year-old, Emma
The Roughnecks Motorcycle Club, Gloucester County Chapter, took a break from fundraising for its own causes Oct. 16, which include supporting charities that benefit injured or slain public service officers. That night, members of the club, which comprises current and retired first responders, such as law enforcement officials, fire fighters, EMTs and military personnel, came together to raise money for a 6-year-old girl named Emma.
Emma O’Brien doesn’t regularly attend the Roughnecks’ meetings. She’s a girl from Glassboro who was diagnosed in May with Wilms’ tumor, a kidney cancer also known as nephroblastoma, which primarily affects children. She’s going through treatment in Philadelphia, and the incidental costs are adding up. And she happens to attend school where a family member of a local Roughneck teaches.
Phil Mastroeni of Winona is that Roughneck. He’s the chapter secretary, an EMT with the county, and his mother is a second-grade teacher at Emma’s school. According to Mastroeni, an e-mail from the school’s principal circled around to staff letting them know about Emma’s status, which is stage 4. Mastroeni’s mother passed the e-mail on to Mastroeni, who then told the club.
The vote for the club to take action took about a minute.
“She happened to pass that on to me, and I brought it up to the club, and we decided to do something for the family,” Mastroeni said.
Emma’s facing an uphill battle, said Mastroeni, who is in contact with her family, but they are very optimistic. She’s responding well to her treatments, which include several rounds of chemotherapy and the removal of a kidney. She’s also slated to have a portion of her lung removed. He said the family was still in shock from the diagnosis when Mastroeni approached them about the fundraiser for Emma, though very thankful.
Chapter president Edward Barton said the club threw around ideas of having a coin drop outside of a retail store, but decided on holding a beef-and-beer fundraiser for Emma at the Glassboro VFW, No. 679, an event that was reserved as an in-house fundraiser. Now a Williamstown resident, Barton a career EMT with Gloucester County EMS, said he was born and raised in Glassboro — and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help someone from his hometown.
“We said, ‘You know what? Why don’t we scratch that and do it for the family. They need it more than we do,’” Barton said. “We’ve got a lot of Roughnecks coming — it’s what we do,” adding that members from chapters from Canada, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Monmouth County, Pa., were slated to show.
Barton said that Emma’s family couldn’t [BELIEVE?] that strangers, especially a motorcycle club, were banding together to hold a benefit for them, and Barton added that his organization also got the family hooked up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Extremely grateful, the family wanted to do more, but Barton said he stepped in and said, ‘No, we’ve got it.”
The downside is, Barton is still an EMT, and works in Emma's town.
“Believe it or not, I may have the opportunity, which I hope I don’t, to get the call [to respond to Emma’s house,]” he said. “And to be honest with you, I hope I’m off that day.”
Emma O’Brien doesn’t regularly attend the Roughnecks’ meetings. She’s a girl from Glassboro who was diagnosed in May with Wilms’ tumor, a kidney cancer also known as nephroblastoma, which primarily affects children. She’s going through treatment in Philadelphia, and the incidental costs are adding up. And she happens to attend school where a family member of a local Roughneck teaches.
Phil Mastroeni of Winona is that Roughneck. He’s the chapter secretary, an EMT with the county, and his mother is a second-grade teacher at Emma’s school. According to Mastroeni, an e-mail from the school’s principal circled around to staff letting them know about Emma’s status, which is stage 4. Mastroeni’s mother passed the e-mail on to Mastroeni, who then told the club.
The vote for the club to take action took about a minute.
“She happened to pass that on to me, and I brought it up to the club, and we decided to do something for the family,” Mastroeni said.
Emma’s facing an uphill battle, said Mastroeni, who is in contact with her family, but they are very optimistic. She’s responding well to her treatments, which include several rounds of chemotherapy and the removal of a kidney. She’s also slated to have a portion of her lung removed. He said the family was still in shock from the diagnosis when Mastroeni approached them about the fundraiser for Emma, though very thankful.
Chapter president Edward Barton said the club threw around ideas of having a coin drop outside of a retail store, but decided on holding a beef-and-beer fundraiser for Emma at the Glassboro VFW, No. 679, an event that was reserved as an in-house fundraiser. Now a Williamstown resident, Barton a career EMT with Gloucester County EMS, said he was born and raised in Glassboro — and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help someone from his hometown.
“We said, ‘You know what? Why don’t we scratch that and do it for the family. They need it more than we do,’” Barton said. “We’ve got a lot of Roughnecks coming — it’s what we do,” adding that members from chapters from Canada, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Monmouth County, Pa., were slated to show.
Barton said that Emma’s family couldn’t [BELIEVE?] that strangers, especially a motorcycle club, were banding together to hold a benefit for them, and Barton added that his organization also got the family hooked up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Extremely grateful, the family wanted to do more, but Barton said he stepped in and said, ‘No, we’ve got it.”
The downside is, Barton is still an EMT, and works in Emma's town.
“Believe it or not, I may have the opportunity, which I hope I don’t, to get the call [to respond to Emma’s house,]” he said. “And to be honest with you, I hope I’m off that day.”
