RIPON — Going outside the box for cancer research in Ripon actually equates to shredding what is inside the box for a $10 donation to the American Cancer Society as part of  Ripon’s Relay for Life event set for mid-May at the Ripon High football stadium.  

Carol Bauman works at the medical offices of Doctors Dutter, Hufford and Daley at 150 Vera Avenue where she is planning to hold a paper shredding event on Saturday, April 25, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot where a Shred-It truck will be located.  

The $10 donation is for the shredding of one banker’s size box of paperwork.  In inches, that’s 10x12-15.  For additional information call 599-2520.

Bauman is a cancer survivor as are her two sisters.  Her mother died of ovarian cancer.

She was shocked just three weeks ago when her younger sister was diagnosed with the dreaded disease.

Bauman said she has always disliked asking anyone outright for a donation without having some kind of an event or challenge associated with their giving.  In the past she has raffled off “flip-flop” sandals as a way to collect monies where her medical staff members could win one or all of the footwear.  

“When the Relay comes along it’s hard to ask anyone for money,” she said, “especially in this economy.”

On the sole of the flip-flops would be green backs folded in a way that made it difficult to determine the amount of the bills.  The cash added up to something like $56, she said.

“Just as I’ve gone through this myself, people have contacted me asking if I can talk to their friends and family members to guide them through their cancer treatments,” she said. “That’s the joy of it – the sisterhood – holding things together.”  

She added that it was so very important for her when she was going through her traumatic cancer treatments that her husband Richard was always there supporting her.

Carol was born in Kansas, coming to the Modesto-Ripon area when she was in the fifth grade.  She and her family have lived in Ripon for some 35 years.

Asking her what she had done for the past Relay for Life events, she responded, “I did not do enough.”

“Cancer is my life insurance policy,” she said, “because I am going to be here for what it has made me.”  Her cancer survival of five years has brought devotion to others and to the cancer society as well.  “My faith in God and in healing is so important,” she said.

She also works quietly as a tutor in English as a Second Language (ESL) program working with a Spanish student.  Others who speak Chinese, Taiwanese and Portuguese are also learning English in the class.

A member of Ripon’s Grace Brethren Church, Bauman also volunteers at the Modesto Pregnancy Center a few hours a week using her half day off on Thursdays.