Raising awareness, opportunities, and connections.
Ankeny Community Champions is committed to giving back and making a meaningful impact in our community. Our recent projects have provided essential support and resources to local individuals and families in need. We are passionate about creating a stronger, more supportive Ankeny for everyone. Getting involved is easy—learn more about our initiatives and how you can make a difference today!
[2025] Joe Bethel The fall of 2024 was a roller coaster for Joe and his family. What started as itching in his ankles and fatigue, led to a two-month long journey with two one-week hospital stays and multiple surgeries to fix blockages in his bile ducts. A referral to the University of Iowa Hospital ultimately was a blessing from God. A routine biopsy of the bile ducts led to another biopsy of a spot on his pancreas they found during his fifth endoscopy procedure. That spot ended up being pancreatic ancer. The diagnosis came in October of 2024 at the age of 37 and after discussions with the team in Iowa City, Joe was fortunate enough that age and health were on his side. This meant, he could have surgery first then followed by chemotherapy. This led to him having what’s known as a “Whipple Procedure” on December 2, 2024 to remove the tumor. Since they found the cancer in its early stage, the doctors determined it was in Stage 2 following the procedure. The surgery ended up being 11.5 hours long and was ultimately successful. Joe was then referred to Mission Cancer and Blood in Ankeny where he started his 1st of 12 aggressive treatments on January 22, 2025 and will go for the next six months. If everything goes to plan, the final treatment will be on his 38th birthday, June 18, 2025. Joe has the most amazing support group supporting him. His wife Kari, his sons Will and Wyatt and their one-year-old Cavapoo, Poppy are by his side. Both Joe’s and Kari’s parents and siblings are all in Ankeny and here to help him on this journey. Joe has these words for his team, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported us in our journey so far. I am humbled by the amount of love and prayers that have been shown to my family and I. Ankeny truly is the best place on the planet to raise a family and live. To all the organizations I am a part of both personally and professionally. Thank you for your continued love and encouragement! This is only a chapter in my story, I am blessed to be able to tell it.”
[2025] Fonda Davis Fonda was diagnosed with Invasive Ductile Carcinoma in December of 2024 at the young age of 41. From there, she and her family have spent many hours with specialists to determine how invasive the Cancer diagnosis is and what the treatment suggestions entail. The team has worked diligently to identify any other concerns before treatment begins. This beautiful, strong woman, wife, mother, and friend to so many will begin a regimen of aggressive chemotherapy treatments in early 2025, lasting 6 months. Due to the results of her genetic test, this will be followed by an aggressive surgery which will require a healing process of many months at home and then most likely followed by Radiation treatments daily for many months after the surgery. Fonda lives in Ankeny, IA with her husband and 3 children, twin step daughters who are 14 years old and a son who is 12 and let’s not forget her Pomsky puppy named Angel. Please keep Fonda and her family in your prayers.
[2024] Jeff Wood Long-time Ankeny resident Jeff Wood was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. Ankeny Community Champions assisted friends of the family to create an apparel webstore and collect cash donations to help the family with the medical bills. Join us in supporting a true commmunity warrior.
FAREWAY ROUND UP
[2024] The Ankeny Art Center Ankeny Community Champions partnered with the Fareway Ankeny stores. The Round Up program raises money for a local cause. This year's winner was the Ankeny Art Center. All money raised will be used for scholarship grants for underprivileged kids to attend summer camps. If enough money is raised, it will assist in improving the technology and art supplies used for these sessions..
EASTER SEALS
[2023] Easter Seals The donations from the annual Renée Murphy Foundation was presented to Easter Seals.
DAD'S OF ANKENY
[2023] Dads Giving for a Cause The Ankeny Dads Group got together and collected money to give a gift to the Ankeny Service Center. $2400 was raised to be used to assist individuals and families with personal care items, transportation, emergency financial assistants and more.
EVIE
[2023] Evie Goes to Disney This is Evie … a student in the Ankeny School District and is battling her SECOND round of medullablastoma after being cancer free for 7 years. One of Evie’s teachers asked her what she wanted to do the most and she said she wanted to go to Mario Land with her Circle of Friends/PEOPEL. She’s a teenager of course her friends needed to be with her! Evie was granted her wish. Evie, her family, friends and her Adaptive PE teacher (who took time off work to chaperone the friend group) went to California with the help of donations from friends (old and new), teachers and family. The money was used towards travel expenses. Thanks to everyone who played a part in making Evie’s dream come true.
RENEE
[2021] The Renée Murphy Legacy Scholarship Renée was an engaged, civic-minded citizen as well as an integral part of the Ankeny business community. She was the loving energy in any room with the biggest smile and the warmest heart. The Renée Murphy Legacy Scholarship will reward civic and community involvement, volunteerim, and celebrate Renée's life-long passion for helping others and will be awarded to two Ankeny graduates every year.
DONATE TODAY TO THE SCHOLARSHIP FUND
If you would like to donate and provide this opportunity for more students, please scan today!
JOSHUA
[2019] A Car for the Win On a very cold and snowy evening, a man (Brian) makes his way out of a church group meeting, cleans the snow off his car and starts driving home. He sees a young man walking on the sidewalk on Ankeny Boulevard. He passes him while wondering why someone would be out walking in this weather. After a few minutes he turns around to offer him a ride but the man disappeared. Several months later Brian sees him again and stops to talk. He finds out the young man’s name is Joshua, he is a 17 years-old Ankeny Centennial Senior, and he is walking to work. No big deal right? Except Joshua lives north of NE 49th Street and works at a restaurant of SE Delaware! It takes him an hour and 40 minutes to walk the 5.5 miles each way. Brian offers a ride. As he heads over to Delaware, he also finds out that he does not live with family. He attends school and then works for the necessities, like rent and food, at night and on the weekends. The word gets out, a GoFundMe page was created and was posted on Facebook. The donations were over $10,000. One of our Board reached out to see what else needed to be done. He needed a car, a driver’s license, insurance, and someone to help manage his money. We were able to get a vehicle donated and helped him navigate the rest. He graduated from Centennial and attended DMACC.
