Melina Edenfield

CANFIELD — The Edenfield family continues to choose joy. They will do so again with the third annual Choose Joy for Melina fundraiser 11:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Canfield Green to benefit pediatric brain cancer research.

Sponsored by the Melina Michelle Edenfield Foundation, the joy will include bounce houses, balloon animals, magic, face painting, kids yoga, music, a DJ, a photo booth, Melina’s Craft Corner, a giveaway table and raffle baskets for prizes that include a trampoline, bicycles, keyboard, American Girl doll and play sets.

The event’s namesake was 4 1/2 years old when she passed on June 24, 2020, a mere 32 days after being diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma, which was inoperable and “the most aggressive brain tumor the doctors had ever seen,” Melina’s mother, Michelle, said.

“Melina taught me in life that I can’t stop bad things from happening and that I cannot change my circumstances,” Michelle Edenfield said. “The only thing I can do is respond. Melina chose joy every day of her life — even when she was sick. So as hard as it is sometimes, we will always find and choose the joy.

“The only good that can come from this terrible tragedy is trying to help others. That is why we set up the foundation,” she said.

But perhaps the coolest part of the fundraiser is that it was started by a bunch of kids. The Choose Joy fundraiser is run by the Joy Team — Melina’s two older sisters, Klara and Emilea, and eight neighboring playmates, Kaylee and Karissa Hensdill, Addison and Jack Lopatta, Meila Hofus, and Mollie, Jackson and Presley Gerhardstein.

“The Choose Joy event will always be special to me and her sisters because it was started by her ‘besties,’ her sisters and friends from her neighborhood. These are kids who wanted to make a difference — and they are,” Edenfield said.

RAISING MONEY

Proceeds from Choose Joy and three other annual fundraisers — a virtual 5K, an Evening of Joy and a golf outing — go directly toward funding pediatric brain tumor research for a cure through the Melina Michelle Edenfield Foundation.

Foundation volunteer Jennifer Parker said, “Locally, we have donated $200,000 to Akron Children’s Hospital to start a research fund in Melina’s name. This is to help bolster their brain tumor tissue donation program and help them become a leading research hospital in the area of pediatric brain tumors.

“We have partnered with and donated over $200,000 to two international organizations dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric brain tumors: The DIPG collaborative and The CONNECT consortium,” Parker said. “By pooling money from many Foundations, these organizations are able to fund the latest in research and development of cutting-edge treatment and medical technologies.

“One of the goals of The Connect consortium is improving communications and sharing of research between research hospitals all over the world. At some point in time, this may allow a child to participate in a clinical point in time, this may allow a child to participate in a clinical trial locally that may be sponsored by a research hospital in another state or country. This would be a terrific advancement reducing the stress and cost to a family that is already suffering immensely with a very sick child,” Parker said.

“Research is exactly what the medical community needs,” Dr. Erin Wright, the pediatric neuro-

oncologist at Akron Children’s Hospital who treated Melina, said earlier this year. “There has been a lot of research over the last couple of decades and we’re still trying to find better and more effective treatment.”

Brain tumors, including diffuse midline glioma, are the leading cause of mortality in pediatric cancer cases. Treatment for brain tumors varies and includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, depending on each individual case, Wright said.

In Melina’s case, the hope for radiation extending her limited prognosis had no chance against the aggressiveness of the tumor.

The general incidence of brain tumors remains the same over the past decades, with 4,000 children diagnosed every year in the United States. Wright said she sees 30 cases of pediatric brain tumors yearly at Akron Children’s Hospital.

MELINA

Born Nov. 15, 2015, to Keith and Michelle Edenfield of Canfield, Melina was the youngest of three girls. The family said her passion and competitive spirit showed in everything she did, from T-ball to dance to swimming to playing the games “Guess Who” and “Old Maid.”

Melina’s favorite color was “green and every color of the rainbow.” She loved everything leopard print — which she referred to as “Cheeto” print for the Cheetos cheetah. On Saturday, rainbows and Cheetos will be everywhere.

The family said that Melina constantly served as an example of what it was like to live with grace, strength and joy. “Throughout her illness, Melina wanted all of us to choose joy over sadness.”

Her spirit is alive and well, Michelle Edenfield said.

“She is my baby girl, and she can never be taken from me and my family, even in death,” Edenfield said. “We look for those miracles every day, and truly believe that Melina is with us. We see the messages every day — the rainbows that don’t belong, green dots — her favorite color was green, along with every color of the rainbow — in family pictures, strength to go on, when we shouldn’t have that strength, and many others.

“Melina was our miracle for 4 1/2 years, and through our foundation we hope she can be the miracle for other families forever,” Edenfield said. “Choose joy.”