LUTZ, Fla. — "So Ever, this is your certificate for getting a perfect score on last year's math FSA for sixth grade so congratulations!"
Getting a perfect score is a huge accomplishment for Ever Otto, now a seventh-grader. Especially since it happened during the most difficult time of his life.
"As horrible as the pandemic was for everyone else, you know, we saw it as a little bit of a little, you know, silver lining, because it meant that we could we could actually be together as a family," Ever's mother Kristen Otto said. "We're together and at times when we're apart...we're together."
The Otto kids — Ever, Cassidy and Indie spent quarantine together. They were determined to make memories to last a lifetime. They even wrote a song and Ever produced it.
The group shot the video in Memphis where Cassidy was being treated for brain cancer.
"We saw what Cassidy went through, and all of the struggles that she had was surgery and radiation and chemo and so it kind of puts our problems almost makes them look small. She got through it. And her motto was just be happy," Kristen said.
On Christmas Day, 9-year-old Cassidy lost her cancer battle.
"She was funny," Ever said. "Loves unicorns. She loves dressing up. And like putting makeup on. She loved sparkles and stuff."
And the family said she loved avocados. Not eating them — just drawing them. And she loved to run.
"Cassidy ran about a dozen 5Ks, and she always enjoyed that. We figured it would be a good way to raise money for cancer research, which is, you know, our number one goal in having the race, along with bringing the community together," Casey Otto, Cassidy's dad, said.
So using his technology skills Ever got to work and set up a website for a run in memory of Cassidy.
"He fully designed the website for the race that we put together, not only fully designed and published the website but also even got us the capacity to have our money come in through the website," Kristen said. "So all the money was channeled through the account that he made his email for Cassidy. And so all the technology stuff ever handled, start to finish."
Ever even designed the race t-shirts, making sure Cassidy's beloved avocado was front and center.
The family said Cassidy always felt the love from the community and the Cassidy Otto “Stomp Out Cancer” 5K Memorial Run was their way to making sure her memory and love lives on.
The family was able to donate $14,400 to Moffitt Cancer Center.
