Franzel Family Humbled by Community Outpouring

If Lindbergh High School's Jake Franzel ever wondered who his friends are, those questions were answered when 25 members of the Flyers football team got their heads shaved at a St. Baldrick’s Foundation event and raised $8,000 for cancer treatment and research. Another 15 Flyers showed up to watch.

“I didn’t expect that many people to sign up for the St. Baldrick’s event,” Franzel said afterward. “We were at a point where they were having to turn down people because we had too many.” The event was at Helen Fitzgerald's in Sunset Hills, drawing crowds and filling the place on a Sunday morning.

Franzel, a junior at Lindbergh, has been fighting Osteosarcoma since freshman year. St. Baldrick's is a volunteer-driven foundation that puts funding toward research for childhood cancers. 

Jake’s father Mike Franzel said the family was humbled by the support from the Lindbergh community.

“The most valuable gift is that his friends let him know that he still belongs with them,” Mike Franzel said. “These guys came out and just touched our family in a way that will last forever.”

For Lindbergh head football coach Tom Beauchamp, the event was not only an opportunity for the Flyers to support one of their own, but it was also the chance to help a family friend. Dad Mike Franzel is music teacher at Kennerly Elementary.

Beauchamp had his head shaved (see photo) and more than 40 Flyers team members showed up to watch. And 25 of those had the haircutter take it all off the top and sides too.

In the end, they raised more than $8,000 for Jake’s cause.

“Jake’s been around Lindbergh football forever and the guys realize that it could be any one of us in his situation,” Beauchamp said. “My son Blake has been friends with Jake for a long time and it’s hard to watch what his whole family is going through.”

Jake’s battle with Osteosarcoma started out with what was thought to be a torn muscle in his right arm while playing lacrosse during his freshman year. Jake also played football at Lindbergh, so it wasn’t uncommon to have to deal with an injury. But further tests revealed that Jake had a tumor on the humerus, which is the bone that goes from the shoulder to the elbow.

Starting in the winter of 2009, Jake spent the next year undergoing 22 rounds of chemotherapy as well as a limb salvage surgery on his upper right arm in which they replaced his humerus with a humerus from a cadaver as well as replacing the head of the humerus with a titanium insert.

“Jake then went into remission around November at the end of his treatment, but then around June of 2010, the doctors found some tumors in his lungs,” Jake’s sister Bekah Franzel said. “Since then he’s had multiple rounds of chemo as well as some experimental treatments, but the tumors continue to come back and grow. They’re trying a lot of stuff right now and hopefully they can get it figured out.”

With Jake’s type of cancer, St. Baldrick’s has already funded three research studies on understanding the later stages of Osteosarcoma, which could prove beneficial to Jake, as well as many other children in his current situation.

For right now, Jake is focused on getting well and graduating from Lindbergh in 2012 with all of those friends.

Donations to benefit the Jake Franzel Osteosarcoma Fund, as well as Friends of Kids with Cancer, can be made to Jake’s Crew or by calling 888-899-2253.