Nixyaawii's Hunter McKay drives past Pilot Rock's Gunner McCall in the Golden Eagles' 62-41 win against the Rockets on Tuesday in Mission.

MISSION — Cancer is an indiscriminate killer.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be more than 1.6 million new cases and more than 595,000 cancer deaths in the United States in 2016.

Of those new cases, 22,510 are expected to be in Oregon. Many of those are bound to occur in Umatilla County.

For many cancer patients in Eastern Oregon, fighting and winning their battle means several trips to or extended stays in hospitals on the other side of the state. Even for those with medical insurance, the hidden costs of battling cancer can be crippling.

With that in mind, Nixyaawii Community School Athletic Director Aaron Noisey was faced with a tough decision recently.

For the past seven years his school had teamed with Echo High School for Bouncin’ Cancer, an event that raises money for cancer charities and had grown in recent years to include other schools and a tournament-like format with basketball at the center.

But when the other schools that had participated declined to get involved this season, Noisey thought it might be the end of an event that raised more than $40,000 to date.

“It was kind of disappointing for the other schools to pull out and we almost canceled the event,” he said. “But we thought, ‘You know what? This is a great cause and it helps a lot of people out.’ So we went ahead with it.”

That decision was made about a month ago, and after securing Echo’s partnership once again, Noisey scrambled to find local businesses willing to donate raffle items. The response, Noisey said, has reinforced his belief that Bouncin’ Cancer is not only a worthwhile endeavor, but one the local community wants to keep going and supports.

Noisey was able secure raffle items from businesses like Wildhorse Resort & Casino, Cayuse Technologies, Airport Antiques & The Furniture Lady, Sorbenots Coffee, Sundown Bar and Grill, and several individual donors, that will be raffled off at tonight’s girls and boys basketball games at Nixyaawii.

Cost of admission is $5 with no exceptions, which will be added to the pot with all proceeds going to Friends of Pamela Faye, an organization that will disperse funds as needed to local cancer patients to cover non-medical expenses associated with their cancer battle.

“The family of the patient or themselves will contact the organization and then the organization will make sure they receive a gas card or a meal card or whatever it may be,” Noisey said. “All the money goes back to local cancer patients. We don’t keep any of the money for anything at all.”

Other ways funds are being raised for Bouncin’ Cancer include a coin drive at Nixyaawii and Echo schools this week and what Noisey calls “A Sticky Situation”, which entails the athletic director allowing himself to be taped to a wall.

“People can buy an arm’s length of tape and we’re going to see how much tape it take to stick me to the wall,” he said. “I’ll be standing on a chair or a bucket and when they think there is a enough tape they’ll kick out the chair. I think it’s going to take a lot of tape so I think we’ll raise a lot of money.”

Community member and cancer survivor Herb Bitting has been invited to talk about his experience with the disease, and Noisey said the microphone will be open to anybody wishing to share their own personal story as well.

“If a community member wants to speak we’ll open it up to a community member too, but we know with some people it may be a touchy issue and they may not want to speak about it yet, so we don’t want to put any pressure on anybody,” he said, “but if they want to speak we’ll open it up.”

It all will get started tonight at 6 p.m. when the Nixyaawii and Echo girls tip off in Mission. The boys follow at 7:30 p.m.

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Contact Matt Entrup at mentrup@eastoregonian.com or (541) 966-0838.