Chances are good you’ve seen someone around Montezuma in one of those red t-shirts, with a TT logo on the front.
“Tater Tough” is what those Ts stand for.
People who wear those are in mourning today, because the reason for the t-shirts, 13-year-old Tate Schaefer, of Williamsburg, is gone.
Tate’s 27-and-one-half-month battle against inoperable and non-treatable brain cancer ended on Monday, March 29.
Tate loved sports and the people associated with them. Amateur athletic events around the area were one way he got to meet so many people in Montezuma and around the region.
In his obituary, a staffer at Powell Funeral Home wrote, “sports meant a lot to Tate beyond a win or a loss. It allowed him to find people he idolized and looked up to, create lifelong friendships, and provided him an outlet to truly be himself.”
Tate was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). It’s a tumor that starts in the brain stem. It is considered fatal cancer.
A celebration of life service was planned for 10:30 Friday morning, April 2, in the Williamsburg High School Gym.
Powell Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
Memorials to the Tater Tough Fund may be sent to P.O. Box 689, Williamsburg, Iowa 52361.
