APPLETON — As a secondary sports journalist, Olivia Harlan Dekker knows a bit about streaks, and the one she has with the Children’s Cancer Family Foundation of Northeast Wisconsin is particularly close to her heart.
Last week, she flew to Wisconsin from Istanbul, Turkey, where her husband, Sam Dekker, plays in the Turkish Basketball Super League, so she could host the Golden Ribbon Gala of Saturday.
It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Appleton-based nonprofit that provides financial assistance and free events to lift the spirits of families with a child with cancer. This is the fifth year for the evening, which this time has the Kentucky Derby as its theme, and the fifth year that Harlan Dekker has hosted.
When she says the event is back in a fat This year, she’s mostly talking about her return as an in-person event at Poplar Hall after the pandemic forced it to go virtual for the past two years, but she also can’t help but point out the ‘evidence.
“I will be 35 weeks pregnant on gala night,” said Harlan Dekker. “It’s very tight, but I’m so happy to still be able to do it. Much later and I think my doctor would have said no, I have to be home. I’m so glad I didn’t break my streak and miss a season.
The couple are expecting their first child, a son, in May. If you want to make the folks of Wisconsin smile, just tell them there’s a potential future basketball star on the way with Dekker in his name and Bob Harlan as his great-grandfather. It’s a slam dunk.
Sam, a Sheboygan native and former Wisconsin Badger, is in his seventh season as a professional basketball player — four seasons in the NBA and three on the road. Olivia, the daughter of famed sportscaster Kevin Harlan and granddaughter of former Packers president and CEO Bob Harlan, does sideline reporting on the NFL and college football and hosts the “Unleashed” podcast with Yannis. Pappas for BetMGM.
The address of the Dekker family’s residence has changed several times since they tied the knot nearly four years ago in a Door County summer wedding, but so are their family ties to the Wisconsin, including the Children’s Cancer Family Foundation, who founded them.
In lieu of wedding gifts in 2018, the couple asked people to donate to CCFF, promising a signed thank you note to anyone who donated $50 or more. They hoped to raise $15,000. The final tally was over $65,000.
CONTINUED: Olivia Harlan on Sam Dekker, their wedding plans and Door County summers
CONTINUED: Aaron Rodgers will travel to Switzerland in May to learn about watchmaking
Now that another milestone in their life together approaches, they think again of the local families whose lives have been turned upside down by a diagnosis of childhood cancer. They got to know many of them at CCFF’s annual Strike Out Cancer Day with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, where a chance to meet Dekker is part of a fun day at baseball stadium.
As parents-to-be, the couple find it impossible not to get a fresh perspective on what these families are going through.
“We’re expecting a baby boy, and I just pray to God, one, when he’s born that everything is perfect – 10 fingers, 10 toes, big lungs, big kidneys, everything – and then after that just that he stays in so healthy,” said Harlan Dekker. “We’ve seen a lot of these kids year after year, lose their hair, get so thin, they’ll come back in a wheelchair some years, they’ll walk some years.
“You just want to do whatever you can to help them, and you also pray that you are never in their place. Becoming a parent gives me a whole new twist and motivates me more to help people who receive the horrible news that their child has cancer. I can’t imagine anything worse in the world.
Harlan Dekker has had a rotating list of Gold Ribbon Gala co-hosts over the years. She shared duties with former Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones early on and with Dekker the second year. She enlisted her friend Bridget Linton to help out for the past two years when the event went virtual, but still hit her goal of $100,000 each year.
This money was needed more than ever for families struggling with cancer and a pandemic, as travel became more difficult, expenses like gas costlier, and some parents lost their jobs. Gala organizers had to “hustle more than ever” to raise funds, but the community pulled together.
“I’m always so blown away by how amazing the people in this part of the country are,” Dekker said. “It makes me really proud to call this home.”
Linton, an on-air personality from Cleveland who has a 7-year-old nephew with cancer, will once again join Dekker for this year’s event. The two have been friends since they met 10 years ago on a flight for the Miss Teen USA pageant. Linton was Miss Ohio and Dekker Miss Kansas.
The centerpiece of the night is a live auction stacked with big sports-centric items that can make for some heated bidding.
Among this year’s packages: a Door County getaway with a round of golf for four at Horseshoe Bay Golf Club; a Sheboygan adventure package with a Lake Michigan fishing charter; court time and private basketball lessons with Dekker, a signed Aaron Rodgers jersey and four courtside seats for the Milwaukee Bucks. As is tradition, the Harlan family is throwing in their four Packers tickets behind the home bench on the 40-yard line at Lambeau Field for a 2022-23 regular season game, along with an autographed AJ Dillon jersey.
Harlan Dekker is working from Sheboygan this week before the gala, but will then be flying to Kansas City, Kansas, to the house she and Dekker have there.
“I have to give birth to this baby at some point,” she laughed.
Their timing, she admits, leaves something to be desired. The baby’s due date falls just as Dekker’s playoffs begin in Turkey, but the plan is for him to return home to Kansas City a day or two before the birth. He will probably have to leave the next day to play in a few more games.
They wondered if they should have their son in Turkey, but it would be a month before he could get the necessary vaccinations to fly abroad.
“We thought it was easier to get Sam to and fro than to get a newborn baby to and fro, so we’re going to ask Sam to do a little extra work, but he won’t miss it for the world. “said Harlan Dekker. . “Now we just have to hope that this baby doesn’t come early because if it comes early it disrupts my whole schedule.”
Having the baby born closer to home also means Bob Harlan doesn’t have to wait to meet his third great-grandchild.
“Let’s put it this way… I think Grandpa Bob will be very happy with the name,” she said, giving any potential spoilers her full approval. “We do last names, so I think Grandpa Bob is going to love the name.”
The couple are looking forward to spending the summer where they always do, in Door County and Sheboygan. Her offseason and maternity leave means plenty of time to care for the newest member of the family.
“We are so looking forward to spending time on Lake Michigan with our two families and savoring this chapter,” said Harlan Dekker.
For Riggins, the couple’s Instagram-esque dog, it will be a chance to get used to the idea of not being the only baby in the house. It’s going to be an adjustment. Harlan Dekker tried to tell him about it, but he deliberately ignored his growing belly.
He stays with Dekker’s parents when the couple are in Turkey, but it’s always hard to leave him behind so you never know…
“Next year we could be this traveling circus taking a newborn and a 60-pound husky overseas,” she said.
Gold Ribbon Gala
What: Kentucky Derby-themed party with big hats, live music, cocktails and southern-inspired appetizers to benefit the Children’s Cancer Family Foundation
When: 5:30 p.m. registration, 6:30 p.m. program Saturday
Or: Poplar Hall, 141 S. Riverheath Way, Appleton
Tickets: $100 general admission per person, $125 reserved per person, or $1,000 for a table of eight
To reserve or make a donation: ccffnew.org/gold-ribbon-gala
Contact Kendra Meinert at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.
