For Will family, annual benefit a reminder of how much community cares

Amanda Will never dreamed of spending the amount of time in a doctor’s office and the hospital as she has the past few years. The journey her son, Colton, and family have been on has already seemed to have taken a lifetime.

Colton Will of New Prague was diagnosed with mixed phenotype lineage leukemia when he was 4. He is being treated at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Recently, he entered the maintenance phase of his threeyear treatment journey to becoming cancer free. He will have monthly visits to the clinic and receive chemo at home.

The son of Amanda and Eric Will of rural New Prague, Colton has been through more treatment than any person should have to receive, but supporters believe he is a winner and a fighter and his precious blanket he takes to every appointment gives him lots of strength. Colton loves to play with Hot Wheels and monster trucks and is excited to go back to day care for a few days each week.

His family was selected as the beneficiary of support from the annual Roman Barten Memorial Benefit Breakfast Sunday, May 4, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the New Prague Knights of Columbus Hall. Free-will donations will be accepted.

Colton has been feeling better, at times, and hopes to be returning to daycare. His family knows when he’s feeling better. His older sister, Sofie, says Colton likes to make messes around the family’s home in Lanesburgh Township.

“He’s been a little spicy,” Amanda Will said recently. “He’s a fierce little guy. He stole our hearts from the very beginning.”

The family will need support for the next three years. Supporters noted the New Prague hockey community has been an amazing blessing for his family. Colton has a loving family: parents, Eric and Amanda, brother, Keaton, 16; and his sister, Sofie, 9.

The family learned Colton had a form of leukemia last June. Members of the family had “gotten a bug,” Amanda said, “but he wasn’t getting any better.”

When Colton’s daycare provider sent Amanda an email indicating Colton wasn’t feeling well, they went back to the doctor.

After a series of blood tests, doctors sat Amanda down for the toughest news she had ever heard. Amanda immediately sent a text message to her husband, Eric. He was in Iowa doing some testing work for his work with Hero Home Services. Amanda relayed what the doctors had told her. She was heading directly to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.

“I had no idea what was going on,” Eric said. The early days in the hospital were spent with tests and treatments.

To see more on this story pick up the May 1, 2025 print edition of The New Prague Times.