Colton’s Army answers the call of cancer-fighting teen at Christmas tree farm

An army of volunteers and supporters set record sales at a Christmas tree fundraiser for a 14-year-old boy with leukemia.

Colton’s Army stepped up big time during the first three days of tree sales at Alan Acres Tree Farm. People supporting Colton Matter in his fight against cancer purchased nearly 800 trees, which is more than the tree farm sold all of last Christmas season.

The farm’s owner donated 75 percent of each sale to the Matters.

Colton’s friends, classmates and their families endured frigid temperatures Friday, Saturday, and Sunday volunteering to man the farm, bale trees, and greet customers. One of the organizers, Christy Findley, told me she didn’t even get warm after two hot showers each day, but she was amazed by the turnout.

Those same volunteers will be back at the farm this weekend for three more days of sales. Colton’s mother, Suzy, posted a statement on Facebook:

“Thank you”….not just words, ‘thank you’ is an emotion when there aren’t words to describe the gratefulness in your heart…we are feeling ‘thank you’…
This past 3 days of selling Christmas trees, crafts, baked goods & BBQ for our hero has surpassed anything we would have ever imagined…our God is a faithful God who can do anything and proves that to us with his healing hand and our hero, but also with his army that he has created and continues to build in his name
We are feeling ‘thank you’
Thank you for so many who came to help and so many whom came to support and the many who faithfully did both with a happy heart
Truly amazing…

Colton Matter desperately wants to be normal. He doesn’t want to the be known as the 14-year-old freshman at Mill Creek’s Jackson High School who’s fighting cancer. Colton just wants to play baseball and be a kid.

Those are the same modest dreams he’s wanted since he was 9 years old, when he was first diagnosed with leukemia after taking a spill on his scooter. His mother Suzy remembers that first night in the hospital after her son’s first chemotherapy session, the night Colton’s Army was born.

“It started with a crazy mom who couldn’t sleep at night, laying in a hospital bed with her 9-year-old son imagining what our future held, and I knew that I couldn’t do it by myself,” said Suzy Matter.

Colton needs a prayer army, Matter thought to herself. Everyone and anyone who could send positive thoughts his way.

But his army needed to be especially big and especially strong. Just as Colton has approached remission each year, the cancer has returned. It has come back five times in five years. He’s had two bone marrow transplants, a stem-cell transplant, and participated in a clinical trial in Philadelphia. Each brought with it just enough promise to allow the family to think ‘maybe this time.’

“Sadly, for five years, I’ve tried to imagine the worst day of my life and it’s a day no parent ever wants to think about,” Suzy said, holding back tears.

“It brings people who have healthy kids to tears and so to know that my child is not healthy and that the worst day of my life could come, motivates me to keep living,” Suzy said.

Living with intention, to make every day matter, just like their last name. ‘Making it Matter’ is now the family motto.

Suzy draws strength by watching Colton battle in his quiet and confident way.

“He gets up with a smile on his face. He doesn’t complain about going to school. He loves his dog. He wants to get another. He can’t wait to go to college. You know, ‘Why should I worry that we aren’t going to win this?’ That’s how we get through.”

But make no mistake, there is anger. Cancer seems to have piled on the Matters. Colton’s dad, Butch, and his younger brother, Case, take out their frustration at the batting cages and the diamond, along with Colton, hitting cancer with each swing.

Suzy has turned her anger into fundraising for cancer research and treatment, relying on the strength of Colton’s Army, which is now more than 2,500 strong on
Facebook. The army has raised about $200,000 for research, including more than $100,000 alone for last year’s Big Climb for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The Matters don’t know what the future holds. They live each day as if it’s their last and they know they have an army at their back.