DOWNLOAD OUR APPDon't Miss CBS Chicago's Award-Winning News Content And Investigations; Click To Get The App Now!
CBSN ChicagoWatch Now
Filed Under:Bernie Tafoya, Brain Tumor, cancer, Warren Township High School

CHICAGO (CBS) — Students at a north suburban high school were planning a special tribute to a classmate who died of cancer in the spring.

Hundreds of students, parents, and supporters at Warren Township High School in Gurnee planned a “gray out” at their first home game of the Blue Devils football season. They’ll all wear gray t-shirts in honor of Daniel Wang, who died of brain cancer in April.

READ MORE: COVID-19 In Illinois: 1,182 New Coronavirus Cases, 5 More Deaths; Lowest One-Day Death Toll Since September

Even the football team will be in gray.

Senior Haley Brock said Daniel Wang was the light of Warren Township High School.

“I do not remember a day where Daniel wasn’t smiling, or he didn’t ask me if I was okay in the hallway if I looked upset, or he just didn’t say ‘hi’ to me with this overjoyed persona,” she said.

READ MORE: Park District Spring Program Sign Up Starts Monday

Brock is one of the organizers of the DW Project, a student group designed to raise money for brain cancer research in Wang’s memory.

“Daniel meant everything to us,” she said.

Money raised by the sale of the gray Daniel Wang t-shirts – which say “Once a Blue Devil, Always a Blue Devil,” and feature his signature on the back – will be donated to Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Program.

MORE NEWS: Chicago Police Seeking To Identify People Involved In Last Summer's Clash With Officers At Columbus Statue In Grant Park

Wang, 17, had emergency surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his brain when he was only 12 years old, and underwent extensive chemotherapy and radiation. He seemed to have recovered in December, but suffered a seizure at school in April, and died a week later.