Local businesses fundraise for child with Leukemia
PENN TWP — Five-year-old Aria Joy Olsen is facing six to eight more weeks in the hospital. Her supporters want to make sure her family can focus on her upcoming bone marrow transplant and not worry about the travel costs.
Aria was diagnosed with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August 2020. In preparation the procedure in Pittsburgh, a fundraiser Saturday sought to help the Olsen family, who resides in Butler.
Joining forces were local businesses Keffalas Designs and Encore Studio by Audra Jane.
“You can’t find a nicer family,” Tiffany Keffalas said of the Olsens. “Our 4-year-old is friends with Aria, and they play together.”
“Aria’s family have been clients of mine for years,” said Audra Bowers of Encore Studio. “This is the least we could do.”
In the Keffalas’ store, a percentage of all sales that day went to the cause for Aria, and outside, dozens of raffle baskets were on display for customers to bid on.
The store also had a table set up with “Aria’s wish list,” where customers could purchase an item for Aria to have during her upcoming hospital visits.
A few steps away, Bowers ran a haircut-athon, where customers could receive a dry hair cut in exchange for a donation.
“One woman donated 10 inches of hair,” Bowers said. “So I’ll be donating that ponytail with some others.”
Michael Keffalas, who owns Keffalas Designs with his wife, said this is the third fundraiser they have done for Aria.
“We don’t go into this thinking we need to take X amount of dollars,” he said. “We do this so (the Olsens) can spend as much time with Aria as possible.”
Chelsy, Aria’s mother, wanted to thank everyone who participated in the fundraiser.
“We can’t say enough thank yous. Everyone’s been amazing,” she said. “There’s good people we don’t even know who donated to help us. Throughout the last two years, we’ve had so much help, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
Following Aria’s original diagnosis and treatment, Chelsy said it was discovered she had a rare mutation of the disease.
“We found out in January 2021 after failed chemotherapy that she has TCF3-HLF, which makes her resistant to that chemo,” she said. “So we started a new treatment, and it went into remission. After a bone marrow transplant, six months later she relapsed.”
In April, it was discovered Aria’s leukemia had returned, and after a starting a new immunotherapy treatment, she received good news.
“On Sunday, testing came back that there’s no leukemia,” Chelsy said. “Now she’s going to have another bone marrow transplant in July. She’ll be in the hospital six to eight weeks.”
Chelsy said doctors estimate there’s a 10% chance Aria won’t relapse again.
“They estimate she has a high chance of liver complications and organ damage after all she’s been through,” she said.
Despite the battle, Chelsy said Aria is a normal 5-year-old girl.
“You wouldn’t even know she’s gone through so much,” she said. “She dances and sings. She has to be distant from people a lot, she can’t go back to school for a while, and she was looking forward to kindergarten. But overall, she’s really upbeat.”
The Olsen family consists of Chelsy and her husband, Adam, and their children Aria, Everly, 3, and Leah, 2.
The funds raised Saturday will help the family in more ways than one, Chelsy said.
“I was talking to Tiffany about the totals, and it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” she said. “With gas prices and me and my husband driving back and forth to Pittsburgh, it’s a relief to our family to not worry about extra expenses.”
Marianne Desantis, a stylist from Encore Studio, said contributing to the fundraiser in a small way was the least they could do.
“It’s the gift we can give of our talent to raise some money for (Aria,)” she said. “We were raised to give and do what you can for people.”
