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ITS HER PARTY
Teenager treated to Sweet 16
team holley2
Holley Zecha, Park City, signs a fire truck during her 16th birthday celebration on Aug. 13 in Wichita. - photo by COURTESY PHOTO
WICHITA — A teenager battling cancer with Great Bend connections enjoyed a “Sweet 16,” birthday, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.Park City’s Holley Zecha, the niece of Great Bend cosmetologist Kim Oberle of Head Quarters, celebrated her belated 16th birthday with the help of a mother who lost her own daughter to ovarian cancer.Holley spent her planned 16th birthday celebration July 14 in the hospital due to treatment for stage 4 Nodular Scierosis, Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma.But Holley enjoyed a formal wear Sweet 16 dance party Sunday, when she was welcomed by friends, family and new-found friends at 1560 Topeka.Wichita’s Kristen Crowe-Merritt, founder of Bekah and Friends Foundation, started planning Zecha’s 16th birthday celebration when she heard her story about a missed 16th birthday party. Merritt’s daughter died she was 14 from ovarian cancer.“This girl needs a party, and here we are,” Merritt told KAKE News. “We threw it together in nine days.