Go and Do:

What: Benefit supper for Camryn Berry

When: 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17

Where: Knights of Columbus Hall, Route 4, Jay

Admission: $7 adult, $4 children

JAY — The community is rallying around Camryn Berry, 12, of Livermore and her family again as the girl faces more surgeries to remove tumors caused by a rare disease.

A benefit supper is set from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Main Street in Jay.

Camryn was diagnosed in 2005 with facial fibrous dysplasia, a rare progressive disease that causes bony tumors to take over normal bone.

A CAT scan had revealed a bone tumor about the size and shape of a baseball, growing mostly in Camryn’s sinus on the left side of her face. Her mother, Tammy, a registered nurse, noticed the mass in her daughter’s palate while she lay with her head in her mother’s lap that summer.

Camryn’s doctors in Maine recommended MassGeneral Hospital for Children to provide her with special care. By age 7, she had two surgeries. Now she has had six surgeries. And the Spruce Mountain Middle School student is expected to endure more of them until she stops growing.

With the cost of health care rising and the coverage by insurance shrinking, it has been difficult for the Berry family to meet Camryn’s medical needs, family members wrote in a statement.

A friend, Ann Hammond, wanted to help the family with the massive medical bills that are not covered by insurance, they said.

Hammond called Livermore Fire Chief Don Castonguay and asked if he would make his famous spaghetti sauce. He agreed, and with Camryn’s grandmothers, Diane Pelletier and Diane Berry, and many other family members and friends helping out, the dinner and a raffle were planned.

Organizers have nearly 50 raffle prizes and will also have a 50-50 drawing and a silent auction. The prizes have all been donated by businesses from Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls, South Portland and Turner as well as members of the community. The top auction items of the night will be a wood stove donated by Don’s Stove Shop in Livermore and two cords of wood donated by Johnny Castonguay of Livermore.

The raffles will be drawn at 7 p.m. and the silent auction will also end at 7 p.m.

Raffle tickets are available at the Livermore Town Office, Otis Federal Credit Union in Jay and Western Maine Family Health Center in Livermore Falls.

Dinner tickets will be sold at the door.

Donations may be sent to the Camryn Benefit Fund in care of the Livermore Town Office, 10 Crash Road, Livermore, ME 04253

For more information contact Ann at 897-2503, Diane at 897-3771, or Renda or Jean at 897-3207.

dperry@sunjournal.com