Senior project honors late sister

If you're going ... The slow pitch softball game between Lincoln High's students and faculty is at 2 p.m. Sunday in Ellwood City's Stiefel Park. From the north, follow Route 65 south into Ellwood City to Fourth Street. Turn right on Fourth, go up the hill and follow as it bears left to a stop sign. Turn right at the stop sign onto Brighton Road. Continue up the hill to the park entrance on the left.











BY MARYALICE MELI MAMELI@NCNEWSONLINE.COM





An Ellwood City high school student is dedicating her senior project to her little sister who died last month. Tessa Beachem, 7, died Aug. 20 of mucopolysaccharidosis, known as MPS. It is a genetic deficiency of an enzyme needed to break down two sulfates in cells. The result is an accumulation of the sulfates that, over time, causes progressive damage. Tessa could not breathe without a ventilator and learned some sign language to communicate with her adoptive family. Lacey Beachem has organized a slow pitch softball game as a fund-raiser to benefit the National MPS Society's research and patient relief efforts. The student-teacher game begins at 2 p.m. Sunday in Stiefel Park. Lacey's parents, Nan and John, sisters Laurel and Shaelyn, and brothers Hunter and Dominic will operate a concession stand to sell ham barbecue sandwiches, baked goods and soft drinks. A cash giveaway also is designed to raise money. Friends are contributing to the bake sale, Brown's Country Kitchen where Lacey and Laurel work is donating the barbecued ham and stores in the area have offered soft drinks. One of Tessa's nurses, who helped with her round-the-clock care over the past few years, has made quilt squares that will be auctioned. One local business donated T-shirts for the teams. "It has been an amazing outpouring of love," Nan Beachem said, "not only for a beautiful little girl who lost her fight against MPS, but it has been a wonderful way for our family to start the healing process."