Mom works hard to honor her daughter’s memory

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By Mickey Zezzo, Contributing Writer Updated 4:32 PM Sunday, September 26, 2010

KETTERING — It’s an extension of a mother’s undying memory of her daughter.

When Melissa Fortener McLaughlin lost her life to breast and bone cancer last January at 31, her mother, Pam Fortener, spent the rest of the year developing a widely-sponsored scholarship fundraiser.

McLaughlin was a former volleyball and basketball player at Fairmont High School and Firebird volleyballers have staged their own fundraiser.

A special Firebird quilt was also created and will be auctioned off, along with an list of items at Firebirds for Fort (McLaughlin’s nickname) on Oct. 17 at the IUE-CWA Union Hall on Woodman.

The items up for sale include an autographed NFL football, an autographed A.J. Hawk (Centerville, Ohio State, Green Back Packers), football and an Aaron Harang (Reds) auotgraphed hat and jersey.

But the big culmination to the relentless dedication efforts by the mother won’t come until the end of October in Atlanta, Ga.

Pam Fortener will be among 3,000 walkers in the three-day, 60-mile walk for breast cancer Oct. 23-25 and to top it off, she has been selected to carry one of 34 American flags in a parade featuring closing day ceremonies.

“I was so thrilled when they asked me to do that in honor of my daughter,” Fortener said. “I know the tears will be flowing in the walk and the parade. Melissa will be proud of me organizing the other things. She was a great organizer herself.”

The daughter and mother did the 60-mile walk a year ago when Fortener, who accompanied her daughter to Atlanta, was talked into doing the walk on the way down.

“So I know I can do it, even if she’s not at my side and as always she’ll be in my thoughts all the way,” Pam Fortener said.

Fortener recently welcomed a new grandson, Max, into the world when her daughter-in-law, Meredith (Lachey) Fortener, the wife of her son, Nick, gave birth to her second son. The other grandson, Andrew, is 18 months old.

“Two new lives in my life,” she said. “It really helps me to refocus.”

Nick, also a Fairmont grad, was a scholarship football player at Akron University and Melissa McLaughlin starred in rugby at Ohio University and later with the Cincinnati Kelts, where she met her husband.

Contact this writer at (937) 236-6032; mickeyz@zoomtown.com

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