WAVERLY -- Ten-month-old Samara Heinemann loves playing school with her big sister. And "batting" on her toy drum.

She also loves dancing and bouncing to any sort of music playing in the family's home in Olympia, Wash.

"She's definitely my little dancer," said Darin, Samara's dad.

A "Love for Samara" benefit will be held for Samara, who was diagnosed on May 30 with a malignant rhabdoid tumor on her liver, a type of childhood cancer.

"We're hoping to relieve some financial stresses off the family so they can completely focus on Samara's care," Jill Nuss, Darin's cousin, said of the June 26 benefit in Waverly.

Nuss said food donations are being accepted for the free-will donation dinner. Monetary donations will be accepted at the benefit.

Darin, a graduate of Waverly-Shell Rock High School, said the family was given a couple of treatment options.

The first option was to treat their baby girl with chemotherapy. But the doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital said there was about a 10 percent chance the chemo treatments would work.

"The only other option that they gave us … is to keep her medicated enough on painkillers until this thing finally took her over because she is not a candidate for a liver transplant," Darin said, explaining that the cancer may have spread to her lungs.

Although he only treats adult patients at his office, Dr. Mohammed Masri, an oncologist at the Covenant Cancer Treatment Center, said Samara's tumor is rare.

"Liver tumors are very rare in children," Masri said. "Only about 150 cases are diagnosed annually of all pediatric liver tumors in the USA."

Since the diagnosis, Samara's family has opted to undergo naturopathic, or natural, treatments in addition to care at Seattle Children's Hospital.

"We're still giving her medicines, but they're more extracts," Darin said. "They're more of a natural-based extract instead of being a chemical."Darin said the 1,800 plus miles that separates the Cedar Valley from the Heinemann family hasn't delayed the outpouring of support they've received so far.

"The support I feel from family and friends is overwhelming," Darin said. "I feel blessed."