Diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer shortly after finding out his wife was expecting their first child, Jeff Wokoun had every reason to be bitter. But Wokoun, today the proud father of a 15-month-old son, decided instead to do what he could to draw something good from his situation.

Wokoun, a property damage manager for Progressive Insurance from Seven Hills, Ohio, a city just south of Cleveland, is an organizer for “Cornhole 4  Cance r,” a  fund -raisi ng cornhole tourna ment with proceeds goin g to support The V Foundation for Cancer Research. The V Foun dation was founded in the early ’90s by ESPN and former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer just months after giving a now legendary speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards in which he announced the foundation’s creation.

It was watching this spee ch after he was diagnosed with his own cancer, Wokoun said by phone from his home, that made him decide to use the cornhole event as a way to support the foundation’s research.

“There was a lot of talk that he wouldn’t even be able to go to the ESPY’s and make that speech, and he did everything he could with his health condition to make it there; he had to have people help him up on stage,” said Wokoun, a lifelong sports fan. “So it was a very impactful speech to me, and when we talked about this there was no doubt that if I did this I wanted the money to go to the Jimmy V Fund just because of the sports aspect, the cancer aspect and all that kind of stuff.”

Wokoun and his wife, Kati, actually started the cornhole event – the latest of which starts at 3 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Brunswick F raternal Order of Police Hall, at 716 West 130^th St., in Brunswick, Ohio – three years ago as a kind of social gathering for a couple dozen friends in their own back yard. Their second gathering, which took place last year, was the first they hosted to raise funds for cancer research, drawing a just over a hundred people and raising more than $1,700 for The V Foundation.

This year the event will be more organized, Wokoun said, with a single-elimination cornhole tournament between teams drawn at random and trophies for the top two teams. There will be activities for kids – including an inflatable basketball hoop – food and raffle prizes including signed memorabilia from local athletes. 

“Since I was in the hospital for a long time we had a lot of family and friends that really wanted to help out and they just didn’t know what to do,” Wokoun said. “Everyone wanted to try to help out but then there was a lot of like ‘What can I do for you?’ So we really had a lot of people pitch in and help out this year to either raise money or to give raffle prizes or to help bake stuff . … It’s kind of a grassroots thing.”

Wokoun anticipates 100 to 150 people will show up for the event, 50 or 60 of which will participate in the cornhole tournament. Players are asked to raise a minimum of $50 each, $40 of which will go to The V Foundation and $10 of which will go toward the pot to be divvied up between the top two teams.  

For participants it’s fun and games, but for Wokoun it’s a short respite from a serious battle. After six months of chemotherapy and a follow-up surgery that resulted in a number of complications, he found out this summer that his cancer has spread into his lungs and liver, which means another, longer regimen of chemo treatments. 

“It’s been tough, because obviously the chemo makes you very nauseous and very fatigued and tired and stuff, but I’ve been able to work through it,” Wokoun said. “It’s one of those things that I just have to go into it thinking that it worked for me last year and there’s no reason to think it won’t work for me again.”

It helps that he has the support of his fellow cornhole players, his friends and family, his wife, and, of course, his son.

“It’s been a miracle to have him,” Wokoun said. “Because he lifts our spirits up.”

On the Web

For more about “Cornhole 4 Cancer,” visit the event Web site at  www.cornhole4cancer.com. For more about The V Foundation for Cancer Research, please visit www.jimmyv.org.