The Monday night volleyball game between Port Allegany and Otto-Eldred represented more than just a contest between two teams. It also served as a chance to help one of their own.

Like at many high school events or games, the home boosters held a variety of raffles to help fundraise. On Monday evening, the Port Allegany Boosters sponsored a basket raffle, a lotto ticket raffle and a night’s 50/50 to give back to the Babcock family.

Lily Babcock, a senior at Port Allegany High School, had spent the summer in hospitals trying to battle an infection that just wouldn’t go away. At the end of June, Babcock started getting sick, eventually testing positive for mono. She continued to get sick and was taken to the emergency room where it was decided the best thing to do was to be transferred to Erie.

After, Babcock became septic and her kidneys were shutting down. The infection in her leg that started off as a small rash on her shin had spread to her whole leg, which was completely swollen.

She spent three days in the pediatric intensive care unit and another seven days in a regular hospital room. She returned to the hospital two more times and is still on antibiotics while doing physical therapy twice a week. The reason for the infection is still unknown.

The fundraiser tonight raised $1,346 dollars for the Babcock family to help with travel, medical expenses and lost wages. The basket raffle winner was Sarah Rounsville. JoAnn Tanner won the Lotto Board.