SALEM, Ore. -- Jack Schumacher lived for baseball. He was good at math, loved LEGOs and loved his family.
A year ago, the Straub Middle School student was honing his pitching skills at Capitol City Sports, and looking forward to summer.
Then, a nagging pain began in his left hip. Within three months, there was a diagnosis: Osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Four months later, he learned there was no hope.
“What he was truly facing was his own mortality, knowing he was going to die,” said his mother, Tammi Huber.
There were tears, there was anger, there was questioning, Huber said. But by the time Jack died at 14, on May 18, he had come to terms with it.
Even more, he left an intentional legacy: A LEGO drive for a hospital; a foundation to help cancer kids; a college scholarship.
But his death left family and neighbors questioning: Was Jack the victim of a cancer cluster that has struck at least five other West Salem children over the past decade?
“I don’t know,” Huber, said. “If we hadn’t moved here, would Jack be alive?”
No answers
Jack started T-ball at age 4. In Portland, he played baseball, pitching for Little League teams.
The family moved to Salem in August 2016 to be closer to Huber’s job as a nurse at the Oregon State Hospital.
Jack fit in immediately, Huber said, pitching and catching for West Salem Junior Baseball.
When she moved to West Salem, Huber didn’t know that just two years prior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had completed a year-long investigation searching for the cause of an osteosarcoma cluster in West Salem children.
The EPA agreed to the study in response to a public petition after 17-year-old Lisa Harder died of osteosarcoma in 2012. At least four other West Salem youths had been diagnosed with the same type of bone cancer in recent years.
But the agency concluded its study without finding answers.
In early May of 2017, Jack started complaining of the pain in his left hip.
His doctor said it was a gluteal tear and referred Jack to physical therapy. But the pain got worse. He had an X-ray and was told it was normal, Huber said.
“Jack’s pain just got so severe,” Huber said. “He could barely walk.”
On July 27, he had an MRI at Oregon Health & Science University. He was in so much pain, they couldn’t complete the procedure.
So, Huber planted herself down and demanded answers. Jack was taken to the emergency room. Soon, there was a mad rush of doctors.
“They then informed me he had a 10-centimeter mass on his left pelvis,” she said. The diagnosis – osteosarcoma – came a few days later.
Jack started chemotherapy immediately. In October, he had surgery to remove his tumor. They took his left pelvis along with it.
Through it all, Jack remained positive.
“He was very hopeful,” Huber said.
Thinking of others
Then, in December, devastating news: The cancer had spread throughout Jack’s body. In January, he was deemed terminal.
“He was very scared,” Huber said. “He would say, '14-year-olds aren’t supposed to die.'”
Through it all, the community rallied around the family – Huber, a single mother, and Jack’s siblings, Zachery, 25, Rebekah, 15 and Isaiah, 12.
Straub Middle School held a pep rally for Jack, with a visit from the West Salem Titans baseball team. Students raised over $1,000 to help the family.
Jack’s favorite team was the San Francisco Giants; one of his favorite players was Buster Posey, who began his career with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
“We were able to get ahold of Buster,” said Jerry Howard, director of game day operations for the Volcanoes. They connected, and on a trip to California, Jack was able to go out on the field with Buster.
For his Make-A-Wish trip, Jack chose to take his family to Hawaii.
Jack spent a lot of time talking about the afterlife, Huber said. And by the time he died, in her arms on May 18, he had made peace with it.
Jack was the kind of kid who was always thinking of others, Huber said. And he gave a lot of thought to what he would leave behind.
“Jack wanted to give back,” Huber said.
At Doernbecher Children's Hospital, volunteers would ask Jack what they could get him. He’d answer LEGOs, but they’d say they didn’t have any.
So in early May, Jack started a LEGO drive for the hospital. The family now has 350 boxes sitting in their garage.
Jack also wanted to start a foundation, to help families with children with cancer. And he asked that the foundation award a college scholarship each year to a West Salem High School graduate. Because the foundation still is being set up, this year’s $1,000 award will come from the family.
Jack wanted to donate his organs, but they were too riddled with cancer. But in the end, Huber said, Lions International took his eyes. That was especially appropriate, Huber said, because his grandfather, Poppie, was blind.
Case closed
When the EPA investigation concluded in February 2014, West Salem residents and state lawmakers vowed to keep searching for answers.
A March 2014 Oregon Health Authority analysis, completed at the request of then Rep. Vicki Berger, found Oregon was tied with Utah for the second-highest rate of childhood osteosarcoma in the nation, spurring more calls for a deeper look.
But that hasn’t happened.
The Oregon Health Authority closed the book on the cancer cluster after issuing a 6-page report in November 2014. It has not monitored nor analyzed osteosarcoma cases in the state since.
Although osteosarcoma diagnoses must be reported to the Oregon State Cancer Registry, Jack’s apparently has not yet been.
In response to questions from the Statesman Journal, the registry said no osteosarcoma cases for any age have been reported in West Salem since 2012.
OHA spokesman Jonathan Modie said facilities have up to 24 months to report cancer cases, so cases from 2016 and 2017 may not be in the registry.
Huber said she hopes the state will reopen the investigation.
Back on the mound
Jack would have hated a traditional funeral, with people dressed up and crying, Huber said.
So instead there will be a memorial service Wednesday night at Volcanoes Stadium.
“We just want to do whatever we can to help Jack’s family,” the Volcanoes’ Howard said. “The poor guy was just a kid who liked baseball.”
It will start with a barbecue in left field. The podium will be on home plate. And then, after dark, the lights will be turned off to signify Jack’s last game, and students will walk the bases, singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew
Get involved
A public service for Jack Schumacher will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, at Volcanoes Stadium, 6700 Field Of Dreams Way NE, Keizer.
Jack’s family is collecting new LEGOs through June 10. They will be delivered to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital the following week. Donate at Capitol City Sports in West Salem, at any Home Smart Realty office, or at the memorial service.
A GoFundMe account has been established to help with medical and other expenses.