Annual Fayette County Christmas tree raffle raises money for cancer research

This year marks the eighth annual Christmas tree raffle in Fayette County that raises funds for the American Cancer Society.

More than 115 trees were decorated for this year's event, in memory of those who have lost their battle to cancer.

KDKA-TV went behind the scenes as families set up this year to learn more about what inspired some of the themes this year.

"Alexandra was amazing, beautiful, talented, funny, kind-hearted, and would do anything to help somebody else," Kelly Schaney said about her daughter.

Alexandra was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was 4 years old.

"It's a pediatric cancer, very rare, very aggressive," Kelly said. "She stayed resilient through the whole thing and kept up with school. She graduated high school, went on to college for a very short period of time, but wanted to fulfill her dream of being on Broadway or being at Disney."

Despite battling the disease, Kelly said Alexandra also constantly worked to help others.

"An example, when she was five or six, we'd been in the hospital so much, and the game room was missing lots and lots of pieces from games and puzzles. She went home and told her dad that she needed to sell all of her toys at a garage sale to raise money to buy new games and puzzles from the hospital, and which she did," Kelly said.

Alexandra's mission to help others continued through a charity they started called Alexandra's Butterflies of Hope.

"We started this charity because she wanted to help other kids and we started this when she was alive," said Christine Schaney Humberson, Alexandra's aunt. "It is a registered 501(c)(3) and we do every year at Christmas."

Alexandra lost her battle to cancer in 2020 at 20 years old. This year, her family chose to decorate one of two trees in her honor with butterflies.

"She loved butterflies. We all love butterflies. We are doing one themed tree that is going to rotate and it's going to have different butterflies on it, sparkly butterflies. She loved her little bit of bling," Christine said.

Kelly is from Charlotte, North Carolina, but travels to Uniontown each year to decorate a tree in her daughter's memory.

"I feel like when we do this, it's therapeutic and it helps us to connect with the other families that are in our same position that have lost family members to cancer. It's just a way of bringing the community together," she said.

Another tree beautifully decorated this year is one done by Kevin Swaney. He lost both his parents to cancer just 10 weeks apart.

"It's very healing. It's emotional, but it gives you knowing that they're looking down on us and knowing that we're making their wishes come true as a family," he said.

Cathy Vrabel also participates in the event each year to raise money to help find a cure for cancer.

"It's just important to me for them to know how much we care about them and raise money the best that we can for this horrible disease," she said.

Tickets are $2 each, with each dollar raised going to the American Cancer Society.

"It's heartbreaking to watch your loved one battle for 16 1/2 years and 14 days, or anyone in your family that has to battle and go through treatment, it just, God, I hope one day they do find a cure, and this helps," Christine said.

"You have to come down. You have to. It's beautiful," Kevin Swaney said.

So far, the event has raised nearly $160,000 in seven years.

The raffle started on Nov. 17 and will run through Dec. 13. The trees are set up at the South Union Township Sports Complex on 333 Pennsylvania Avenue in Uniontown. It's open Monday through Saturday from 10-8 p.m. and Sunday from 11-6 p.m. The drawing will be held at 3 p.m. on Dec. 13.