Anderson Independent - Charmaine Smith-Miles
When Cory Watt looks back at the ordeal he’s had with cancer, his father, Jody Watt hopes that he will not remember the day-after-day turmoil of going through radiation.

Cory is a 16-year-old junior at Crescent High School. In the fall of 2007, he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and went through a surgery. Then he went through 35 radiation treatments — nearly one a day, his father said.

In July, his latest test showed the cancer was in remission.

As summer came to a close here, Cory and his father, Jody, went on a trip to put all that behind them. They went to Alaska. They walked on a glacier in the middle of Alaska and spent a week camping on the shores of the Tanana River in Alaska.

“It was amazing when we stepped out on that glacier,” Jody Watt said. “I guess, when he looks back on his cancer hopefully he will remember this instead of all the surgeries.”

And all of that was paid for by the Outdoor Dream Foundation.

The Outdoor Dream Foundation is a non-profit organization that grants outdoor adventures to children who have been diagnosed with terminal or life-threatening illnesses. Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Anderson County Fair and Expo Center, the foundation started by Andersonian Brad Jones is having its Low Country Boil and Barbecue, complete with food from Coach Joe Crosby, an auction, a raffle and live music.

Tickets are $30 and can be obtained by calling Brad’s father and former T.L. Hanna coach, Harold Jones, at 226-8775, or you can buy tickets at the door tonight.

Linda Jones, also a partner in the organization and Brad’s mother, said they hope to raise $40,000 this year. The event, held annually, raised about $30,000 last year, she said.

But this year, she said they’ve received more applications than they’ve ever received. As a family, they operate the organization and volunteer all of their time. So 100 percent of the proceeds from the fundraiser goes to the children, she said.

It is the children that keep them going, too, Jones said.

As an example of what keeps them going, Jones read a letter from one mother, whose 12-year-old boy was going on a trip but did not make it before he passed away.

“Thanks for the trip to Alaska. He looked forward to it so much. But he took a trip to Heaven instead,” Jones read.