MADISON — Pink Night will mean something more to the Madison volleyball team this Thursday.

On Oct. 6, freshman volleyball player Grace Wilkens and her family went to the ER to treat headaches that she’d been experiencing for the past month. After a CT scan, a tumor roughly five centimeters in diameter was found on the left side of her brain.

Just three days later, Grace went through a six hour long surgery to remove the tumor and is now on the road to recovery.

Since the news came out, the Madison volleyball team and community has found many ways to rally around the Wilkens family, starting with Thursday’s Pink Night.

“Normally every year we host a Pink Night and we donate the money to a local cancer support group,” said Madison volleyball coach Jill Kratovil. “That group is no longer a group in our town and then this came about, so we have gift baskets that we raffle off that each of the classes on the team create. We actually have a lot of people in the community wanting to donate items for the baskets to be raffled off.”

On top of the gift baskets, the Madison middle school student council will be holding a walking taco feed and the high school culinary arts class will have a bake sale. There will also be “Team Grace” bracelets for sale ahead of Thursday’s match with Chester Area.

And it’s not just the Madison community getting involved in Grace’s recovery, the surrounding school districts have also reached out to help anyway they can.

“Not only do we have an awesome community in Madison, but our surrounding communities have been supportive as well,” Kratovil said. “ORR (Oldham-Ramona/Rutland) has reached out, Arlington has reached out, Colman-Egan has reached out. It’s just amazing to see everyone rally behind Grace through everything that she’s going through and just being there to support her and her family.”

The Madison school district also had a hat day last week with free will donations and have sold Pink Shirts as well. 

The Colman-Egan and Oldham-Ramona/Rutland volleyball teams will also have Pink Night Thursday in Colman, including a raffle for two autographed volleyballs and a silent auction for a third autographed volleyball. There will also be a chuck-a-duck challenge where the winners will each get a pink candy themed basket.

According to Grace’s CaringBridge page, she has started physical, occupational and speech therapy. The surgery only removed 80% of the tumor due to its proximity to two main arteries.

The family is still waiting to find out what type of tumor it was, and will need to wait till her incision has fully healed before starting treatment.

“Grace is one of the kindest people you will ever know,” Kratovil said. “She’s always willing to help others, she’s so supportive. Not once this season did she ever complain. Anything hurting, she just always puts her best foot forward and gives it her all. To see everyone rally behind her, it’s just been so great to see because she’s just the kindest girl and just a hard worker and would do anything for everyone else.”