Community Helps Dana Milatovich Fight Cancer

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- A local teacher and father of five received an abundance of community support as he continues his fight against cancer.

Sunday, National Road Elementary School hosted a benefit in celebration of 44-year old Dana Milatovich, who was diagnosed with stage 3b colon cancer in October 2017.

“I have to have a total of twelve treatments. I’ve had nine so I have three more to go and their like every two weeks. It’s been rough, I’ve been able to still kind of work some but I get wore out and kind of tired but with the prayers and everything from our church family, friends and just my faith in the Lord has helped us get through the whole thing,” said beneficiary, Dana Milatovich.

Offering an all you can eat spaghetti dinner and silent auction, the true focal point of the benefit was to serve as a support for the Milatovich family.

“The events consisting of a baked spaghetti dinner, all you can eat and we’ve compiled generous donations throughout the community for a silent and live auction. Dana is a best friend of mine and I’m also an auctioneer. Between the two of them, today was a perfect day to combine everything and bring the community together and try to raise some money to help them what they’re going through with Dana and his health,” said auctioneer, Johnny Nolan. 

Although Sunday’s benefit was a packed house, best friend and organizer, Stacy Norris said she’s extremely overjoyed about the immense amount of support they’ve received.

“I’m very overwhelmed with joy. It’s just very hard to put into words. I just really want to thank everybody who donated and contacted me personally and just helped us. It couldn’t have been near as close to what it right now without the help of the entire community,” said Norris.

Between the auction and generous donations, the benefit was able to generate a good amount of funds to help the Milatovich family.