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Teens write about cancer's impact

RASHA ALY - THE DESERT SUN - JULY 25, 2009

It's been six months, and Miguel Gonzales, 17, misses his father.

His father, Vicente Gonzales, 71, died in January of cancer.

“To him, cancer was just another thing to overcome in his life, and he was willing to do whatever it took to defeat it,” Gonzales said of his father during the Gilda's Club Desert Cities award ceremony Tuesday evening.

The soon-to-be senior at Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage was the winner of the Gilda's Club Desert Cities California “It's Always Something” Teen Essay Contest, a competition Gilda's Club officials opened to teenagers across the Coachella Valley.

Gilda's Club is a nonprofit organization in Cathedral City aimed at helping families and friends whose lives have been affected by cancer.

As the winner, Gonzales stood before a crowd of sympathetic listeners, many of whom had also had contact with cancer in their lives, and read aloud the essay as a part of the award ceremony.

It was the first year of the essay competition. The clubhouse, on East Palm Canyon Drive, received 24 applications, said Argentina Serrano-Baldridge, program director.

“Teenagers are a tough group that have a hard time expressing themselves,” Serrano-Baldridge said. The contest gave “them an opportunity to share their feelings,” she said.

The Gilda's Club in the valley is not the only one offering the essay competition, Serrano-Baldridge said. Other Gilda's Clubs across the country have established a contest as an annual event — something the clubhouse here also hopes to do.

For first place, Gonzales received $1,000.

Second place and a prize of $500 went to Morgan Whelchel, 13, of Rancho Mirage.

Krystofer Do, 15, of Palm Desert and Kelsey Mezrahi, 16, of Rancho Mirage tied for third place. Each received $250.

The top four winners also received a journal.

Other participants received a certificate and gift card from one of the sponsors.

Krystofer Do, third place winner for the "It's Always Something" Teen Essay Contest, speaks at the awards ceremony Tuesday. (photos by Omar Ornela, The Desert Sun)

Miguel Gonzales, first place essay contest winner, reads his essay describing his father's last moments during an awards ceremony at the Gilda's Club building in Cathedral City.