Local girl holds fundraiser for St. Jude in hopes of helping kids her age beat cancer
One local 11-year-old is on a mission to help others her age battle and defeat cancer.
Keira Totleben held a fundraiser to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital on Saturday.
Lake Erie Ale Trail hosts 7th annual Beer Coaster fundraising event
Totleben organized a Chinese action with over 40 baskets, as well as a bake sale.
Several local businesses contributed to the Chinese auction, which helped her get closer to her goal.
'It's just amazing' — Penn State Behrend helps community with annual rummage sale
'You can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it,' said Totleben. 'My goal this time is $5,000.'
If you would like to donate, click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The noxious fungus causes "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year, prosecutors said. The toxins can cause vomiting, liver damage and reproductive defects in humans and livestock, prosectors said. The economic loss is felt by farmers who can't sell their commodity, Bergstrom said. In the 1990s, a series of epidemics in the upper Midwest caused a billion-dollar loss over a number of years, he said. The disease is of worldwide importance as well, with documented cases occurring in North and South America, Europe and China, Bergstrom said. Since then, monitoring programs have been put in place to mitigate the impacts of Fusarium graminearum on crops, Esker said. The fungus can produce a poison called a mycotoxin or a fungus toxin -- sometimes referred to as the "vomit toxin" because of the negative impacts it can have on the digestive symptoms of humans and animals, Bergstrom said. "Plants get sick just like people, and this particular disease that we're talking about, Fusarium, head blight, is a big problem on wheat and barley and some other grains all around the world," Allen said. The USDA maintains a wide set of rules to regulate pathogens, the experts said. In order to be granted an Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service permit from the USDA to bring a foreign strain into the country, researchers must provide background information on the strain, explain the thought process on whether they might represent a threat to local agriculture and human health, and lay out the plan for containing the pathogen, Bergstrom said. Even strains from other states within the U.S. must undergo the same process, Bergstrom said. Strains from outside the U.S. undergo more scrutiny, including inspection of the researchers' laboratories, Esker said. "That is a very sound policy, good science," Bergstrom said. It is unclear whether Jian and Liu had such permits. A case of 'bad judgment?' Plants pathogens most commonly have been moved around by accident by humans, Allen said. The occurrence of Fusarium graminearum is strongly impacted by weather conditions -- especially excess moisture, the experts said. "If the weather is really dry, I don't expect to see the disease," Esker said. Allen believes the incident is not so much smuggling but a case of "bad judgment" by passionate researchers. "I'm a biologist, right? But I'm also a biologist who has trained dozens of young scientists over my career," she said. The Justice Department press release does not detail when the alleged smuggling took place. Jian and Liu were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud, U.S. attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. announced on Tuesday.
