CHAMBERLAIN — The Chamberlain community is rallying around John Donovan.

Back in July, it was discovered that Donovan, a teacher and head wrestling coach at Chamberlain High School, had a mass on his brain with fluid built up which was later discovered to be glioma, a type of brain cancer.

Since the diagnosis, Donovan had surgery to try and move the fluid elsewhere with the hopes of getting into the Mayo Clinic to try and shrink the mass.

All the while, the Chamberlain community is trying to help Donovan and his family anyway they can.

Donovan and his wife, Amy, both work in the Chamberlain School District, which was one of the first places to come up with fundraising for the family.

“When we first heard of John’s diagnosis, we were all kind of talking and seeing what we could do to help, whether that’s financially speaking or support him and his family,” said Chamberlain activities director Anna Pazour. “So we came up with the idea to do T-shirts which we’ve always done online stores with apparel before and they’ve always done well.”

The T-shirt the school district came up with is gray as the color for brain cancer awareness along with Chamberlain Cubs red and white lettering.

The shirt also has the phrase ‘It’s tough time’ on the front in honor of Donovan’s signature phrase during his 22 years as a wrestling coach in Chamberlain.

A rendering of the T-shirts for John Donovan (Courtesy Photo / Anna Pazour)

“He always says ‘It’s tough time,’ when there’s always 30 seconds left of every period and it’s just something all the kids have come to know and expect from him.

“We thought it could be a good saying that could kind of tie in to his battle and what he’s going through, but then also showing that we’re all in this together and having a united front with the shirt and having that all tie in together,” Pazour said.”

The back of the T-shirts.

On top of the T-shirts, other Chamberlain sports teams are getting involved with fundraising for the Donovan family. Both the cross-country and boys golf teams have held events to help raise money for Donovan.

“Our cross-country coach has coached with John for many years and usually each year they do a car wash and then they take the funds for their fundraising account,” Pazour said. “But this year the cross country team decided to do that but then all proceeds would go to John’s benefit account at First Dakota.”

The boys golf team held a raffle for a $400 putter, two weekend passes to the Sanford International golf tournament next weekend and a $250 gift card to the Chamberlain Country Club. The boys golf team raised almost $4,000 for the family.

But it’s not just the Chamberlain School District to show their support for Donovan, this coming weekend the 13th annual Smoke On The Water cook-off takes place at Oasis Campground in Oacoma.

Along with the cook-off, the Chamberlain Locker is holding a raffle for 30 guns in 30 minutes, with any proceeds going to Donovan’s family. 

The locker usually picks one cause to fundraise for each year at the cook-off, and with John’s son, Xavier, working for the Chamberlain Locker, it made it an easy choice for organizer Angela Thompson.

“Xavier Donovan, John’s youngest son, works for us at the Chamberlain Locker,’ Thompson said. “We always try to do a fundraiser of some sort or a giving back of some sort with the cook-off. This year, since John is going through what he’s going through, we decided to try the 30 guns in 30 minutes.”

(Courtesy Photo / Anna Pazour)

The raffle will start at 3 p.m. Saturday just before the judging of the cook-off with prices of $100 per ticket. The guns will be provided by Tony Donovan, John’s brother, in partnership with Pharmco.

“He’s meant a lot to the community so we just want to get that to help them out in this very difficult situation,” Thompson said.

Donovan has had many connections with the Chamberlain community over his lifetime. Between coaching and teaching in the school district for 22 years, working as a volunteer firefighter for the Chamberlain/Oacoma fire department and much more, the community has played a big role in his fight with cancer.

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s going on, which is good,” Pazour said. “I think in times of crisis, people just want to act and be able to do something, and our community really took it and ran with it which is awesome.”