For football player with cancer, a wealth of community support

Columbia Falls High School senior Gabby DeLorme was diagnosed with leukemia Aug. 7, just two days before the start of football practice.

But DeLorme is ready to fight the disease, his friends and family say. 

“He’s never willing to give up,” junior Braxton Reiten said. Reiten is a football teammate and one of DeLorme’s best friends. Reiten has known DeLorme since they moved into the same neighborhood when they were both 4 years old and found out they were cousins. The DeLormes have lived in Columbia Falls for about 11 years.

DeLorme has been fighting the cancer with chemotherapy treatment in a Seattle hospital since early August. Gabby’s spirits are high, his father Dean DeLorme said, but the treatment is tough on the young man.

“You don’t know,” Dean said. “Sometimes he’s pretty sick.”

As an athlete, DeLorme was willing to do anything the coaches asked, Reiten said. 

DeLorme has played football as a safety and wide receiver and played tennis last year. He also helped coach the Little Cat track and has been referee for the Flathead Valley Little Guy Football program in Kalispell.

Football coach Jackson Schweikert said he is “absolutely a special individual” because he is fun, has a great smile and never missed a workout. Schweikert considers him one of his favorite kids out of his 25 years of coaching. He recalled that DeLorme came into the weight room as a freshman and at every opportunity worked hard continuously.

“There is no one who doesn’t love Gabby DeLorme,” Schweikert said. 

Donation buckets have been set up in local businesses and gas stations. The high school student council raised $300 from donation boxes at the homecoming football game and $1,100 from the powder puff game in September. The high school staff also donated money from its Casual for a Cause fund.

A family friend was planning to do a fundraiser at Pizza Hut in September, but the person didn’t sign the contract and it never officially came to fruition. However, word still got out about it and people showed up to support DeLorme. The company’s area coach Becky Cassel said that even though there was no official fundraiser, she donated a percentage of the profits that night. She is still looking for someone who wants to have a fundraiser for him.

“I think it’s a great cause and I want to help out the family,” Cassel said.