A cancer diagnosis is breathtaking enough to change anyone's life, let alone a teenager's. But what no one at Grove City could have foreseen was the galvanizing effect that it would also have on the school's other 1,670 students—both the kids who know the ill students personally, and even the ones who don't. "I felt shock and disbelief," says student council president John Keating, 17, recalling the news that four fellow students had been diagnosed within four months. "That it was cancer. That it was kids. And that it was kids I knew."
Then, like so many others at Grove City, Keating set about doing whatever he could to ease the plight of his schoolmates. On June 24, even after classes have ended for the year, students will host a 24-hour Relay for Life fund walk for the American Cancer Society at the school's track. And this is just the latest in a string of gestures of support, large and small. Students held a $25,000 fund raiser for one of those afflicted, fashioned handmade gifts and, in some cases, simply sent drugstore get-well cards to kids they never met. Their efforts came to a high point on March 9, when more than half of the school's students took part in a Pink T-shirt Day to show support for their cancer-stricken friends. Hundreds of kids wore something pink; a handful even dyed their hair that color. "I was amazed by the number of students who took part," says graduating senior Jaci Maynard, 17. "It was awesome to know so many people wanted to reach out and say, 'We care.'"
Things didn't necessarily start out that way. In the immediate aftermath of their fellow students' diagnoses, some of the healthy kids now admit, their first concern was themselves. Some wondered if they could be next, if local water or a trash dump down the road were to blame. (So far no evidence has been found of any link between environmental factors and cancer at the school.) Others just "asked lots of questions," recalls Chase, who has received a good prognosis after being diagnosed in January with aggressive melanoma. "'What are they going to do? How are they going to get it out of you?' I didn't answer because I didn't know." And how could they not be terrified? Chase's friend Ben Meister recalls a vivid dream that contained a shocking image—Chase's closed coffin. "It was about Chase dying because of the cancer," he says. "I was standing around the casket with all of my friends." Says assistant principal Thomas Willison, 45, these were all normal reactions. "For the first time in their lives," he says, "our students had to come to terms with their own mortality."
Within weeks, a different kind of response began to emerge. "After everyone quit thinking about themselves, they decided to do whatever they could to help," says senior Cody Ramey, 18. For Chase Minister, a star shortstop on the Grove City Greyhounds baseball team before his melanoma diagnosis, that meant the "It's a girl!" and "We Love You, Mom" balloons that friends brought to the hospital as a joke to cheer him after a two-hour surgery to remove a tumor from his back. For Megan Compton, who faces a guarded prognosis after being diagnosed in February with a soft tissue cancer that had spread to her bone marrow and lymph nodes, 60 kids lined the hospital hallway as she was being taken into surgery to remove a tumor in her left breast. "They were there with their hands up, cheering her on and making a tunnel for her bed to go through," says her mother, Deena Compton, 47.
For Angie Sayers, an aspiring marine biologist who in December lost part of her right leg to osteosarcoma, the most common form of childhood bone cancer, it was the caring and loyal friends who visited, played computer games and brought gifts, including a notebook of handwritten messages, decorated with her beloved dolphins. "Knowing they were there—that meant a lot," she says. And even a relative newcomer, sophomore Nedal Mureb, 15, whose family arrived from Jordan in 2003 and who was diagnosed in February with a tumor in his arm, was touched by Grove City's generosity. "Just today his teacher came and brought a gift of a DVD player and letters from his friends," says his mother, Amal, 36. (Mureb declined to be photographed for this story.)
Over the school year the concern and goodwill spread. Says senior Ryan Galloway, 16, who wasn't a friend of any of the sick kids before this year: "We couldn't let them go through this alone." Jaci Maynard sold bracelets at school to raise money for cancer research and is putting together a scrapbook of the year for student council. And dozens of students signed handmade quilts sewn by Terry Schwarz, a school librarian. Says Angie's mom, Terri Sayers: "The love and support has been incredible."
The end result, says Willison, has been "a huge growing experience. The students see life now as very precious." As a result, some of them have slowed their use of tanning beds (to avoid skin cancer) and, according to Grove City principal Kathryn Buckerfield, others are talking about wearing seat belts or signing pledges not to drink and drive. It also may be that in at least one sense the Grove City kids have taught as much as they've learned. "Sometimes at night, my wife and I talk about our own children and what we want for them as they grow up," says Willison. "It's to be generous and kind. That's what's important in life. And if they turn out like these kids in our high school, we'll be proud."
- Contributors:
- Barbara Sandler/Grove City,
- Margaret Nelson/Grove City.
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