It’s been the topic of Atlantic for the last week, making its way to national and even worldwide news.  Thirty-year-old Leatha Kaye Slauson was arrested Thursday, Aug. 21, and charged with felony child endangerment and giving her daughter cannabis oil, a class B felony.  She claimed her 5-year-old daughter, Riley, had cancer that was now terminal, and used this claim to raise money for the family.

According to the Des Moines Register, Slauson was charged additionally on Wednesday, Aug. 27, with child endangerment causing bodily injury and unlawful possession of prescription drugs. According to reports, Slauson had been telling everyone Riley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last September and that it was now terminal.

Hearing this, Atlantic stepped up as a community and held numerous fundraisers in order to help out Riley’s family and make her last months memorable; but a possible case of child abuse was reported to the Atlantic Police Department by school officials who were looking into what special care Riley would need, which uncovered uncertainty about medical questions that seemed to not add up.

It was then discovered after police investigation that Slauson had lied about her child having cancer and was giving her cannabis oil. According to KCCI, police say as of now Slauson was the only one involved in the scheme, which consisted of raising money from individuals and organizations in the past year.  This also included a trip to Walt Disney World for the Super Riley Fund.

One community member who was touched by Riley’s story was head fire chief Mark McNees. McNees first heard about Riley through the United Methodist Men’s group, of which he is a member, and the YMCA, because she attended day care at the Ann Wickman Center.

The group heard the story of her having cancer and decided to host a pancake supper for Riley and the family. Then one of the firefighters at the Atlantic Fire Department approached McNees about Riley, finding out about her through the Super Riley Facebook page.  This firefighter really took her story to heart because of having an ill daughter of his own and knowing how tough an illness can be on the family.

“We were looking for a way on what we could do for Riley that was meaningful and came up with the idea to host a walk to get pledges,” said McNees. Within three days of finding out about Riley, posting information about the walk on Facebook, and hosting the event, they raised around $8000, with more coming in afterwards.

The walk was just the first thing the fire department hosted for Riley, though.  “A couple weeks ago another firefighter had discovered the Pink Heals Tour, so we asked them to come to the area for Riley.  They agreed, and people came out and purchased things to help the Pink Heals Tour pay for fuel,” said McNees.  Although this wasn’t a fundraiser for Riley, donations were still made. Not all money from the Pink Heals Tour had gotten to the Slauson family yet when the mother was arrested.

This isn’t the first time the Atlantic Fire Department has helped out a sick member of the community, but what really touched them about this story was finding out that Riley’s dream was to become a firefighter.  Since at the time they thought the cancer was terminal, the Atlantic Fire Department decided to make her wish come true by making Riley an honorary firefighter.

McNees laughed with joy when telling of a time when someone had asked Riley if she wanted to be a firefighter after being awarded with honorary firefighter and she replied “I already am.”  He said, “Doing good for Riley wasn’t for the reason we thought it was for, but the kid needed some love and support and we were glad to give it to her.”

The fire department’s response to learning about the fraud has been varied.  McNees said Riley was made an honorary firefighter and she’s staying there, but he is deeply saddened by the whole scandal.  “I can’t at this moment be mad about it.  Of course everyone is disgusted that a parent could do something like that to a child, but at this point when we don’t know the entire story. I just feel sad about it.”

McNees does not see this scandal affecting the community, though.  “I think it just shocks everybody that something like this could be done, but the fact that the community opened their arms to a family no one knew that had just moved to town shows a direct reflection to the community and the goodness of their hearts, and I don’t think it’ll change in the future.  If the fire department gets asked to do something like this again, we will be there.”

Along with people affected from the community from donating to Riley’s family are Jess Ehrman, guidance counselor secretary, and Mallory Kirchoff, paraeducator, at Atlantic High School.