UNION SPRINGS #- To watch 4-year-old Emma Wetherbee, of Auburn, running around the Union Springs Fire Hall Saturday afternoon, one would be hard pressed to know that the young girl is battling a rare form to cancer.

In December 2007, Emma was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, a form of cancer that manifests itself in both eyes and is estimated to occur in about four out of every one million children.

Amanda Wetherbee, Emma's mother, said that her daughter, who attends Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency's Head Start program, was going through a regular eye exam, but that the results were inconclusive.

The optometrist recommended that Emma be taken to Syracuse for further examination.

“We went in for the follow-up,” Amanda said, “and we had the diagnosis confirmed on Thursday.”

Emma and her family, including father, Sam, and brother, Logan, 3, were directed to Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia where Dr. Jerry Shields, a pioneer in the treatment of this particular form of cancer has been practicing for more than 30 years.

“We were told that he literally wrote the book on this,” Amanda said.

“They did bone scans and an MRI and they caught it in time and it hasn't spread and we have been doing a specific chemotherapy and Emma has been doing really well.”

While her daughter has been responding well to treatment and is still a busy and active 4-year-old, going to school most everyday and spending time with friends, the family has to make a three-day trip to the institute every four weeks for treatments.

Amanda said that Emma's teachers have been very understanding and supportive as well as her and her husband's employers, but the treatments are not covered by the family's medical insurance.

Saturday afternoon friends and family gathered at the Union Springs Fire Hall to lend a helping hand with a children's carnival and chicken barbecue.

Dawn Despaw, a friend of the family headed up a group of other friends that helped get things going for the fundraiser.

“We started in December,” Despaw said. “We started planning as soon as we heard about Emma's diagnosis.”

With games, food, cakes and music, it was a festive atmosphere, which was just what Despaw and company were shooting for.

“We wanted this to be something fun,” Despaw said. “We wanted Emma to have a good time and we just wanted it to be something fun for her and everybody that is here today to help lend a little support to this family right now.”

The fire hall was packed with friends and family, many of who bore supportive messages on their shirts or painted right on their faces, baring slogans like “Support Emma's Eyes.”

Among those in attendance was Emma's aunt, Jennifer Tobin, of Union Springs.

“I think it is really good,” Tobin said.

“It is nice to see so many people here. I'm really happy to be here and to see so many people out to support Emma that is what this is all about.”

While Emma ran around with friends from game to game, Amanda reflected on how fortunate her and her family have been not only for the support they have received from friends and family, but also the good fortune they have had from the very beginning of this experience.

“We are lucky,” Amanda said. “We are lucky to have programs like Head Start. If Emma wasn't involved in that I don't know where we would be. She didn't have any symptoms or anything; it was because of that exam that we caught this and are taking care of it. We are really lucky. And we are lucky to have so many people in our lives before this and since we have been going through this, that are there to help. It is great to see.”