A few months ago, Matt came home and told me about his boss' niece, Haley. While on family vacation, ten year old Haley fell and broke her femur; at the hospital, it was discovered that she has a rare form of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma.
In December, Haley's leg was amputated in an attempt to stop the cancer from spreading. Since then, she has been undergoing intense treatments that doctors hope will eradicate all of the cancer cells.
It's difficult enough to imagine a ten year old girl facing a life without a leg; what's even more difficult to comprehend is that the family's insurance company refuses to pay for the prosthetic leg, having deemed it cosmetic and therefore not essential.
WTF? (I'm not in the habit of throwing out the WTF here at La Pointe of It All, which shows how appalled I am).
Do you have any clue how much a prosthetic leg costs? Go ahead and guess - and feel free to make your calculation a bit high, based on the state of the art model you would want your child to have.
What, maybe $25,000? $50,000? $75,000?
Nope, try $100K. And that's in addition to the expense of making the home handicapped accessible, buying a handicapped accessible van, etc.
When I heard this story, I knew that I wanted to help and decided to focus my efforts on Haley herself. A ten year old girl stuck in the hospital for months on end needs a bit of light in her life, so I rallied my students together and asked them to help me put together a book of activities she could do.
Each student designed his or her own page detailing "How To" instructions on a myriad of crafts and activities. Some kids researched and compiled lists of fun websites, songs, etc. One girl even donated an softball signed by Olympic Silver Medalist Jennie Finch from her personal collection because she had read that Haley likes softball.
The coolest part is that for every activity in the book, each student donated the materials necessary to complete the activity ! Two students helped me organize all of the pages (I think there are about 30 ) and volunteered to put the finished product together, including packing all of the materials in individual gift boxes and decorating them. Everything will be numbered - the pages and the boxes will have corresponding numbers so Haley can flip through the pages of the book, choose an activity, and then have easy access to what she needs to complete it!
We're hoping to deliver the finished project to Haley's uncle next week, who will then deliver it to Haley.
Hopefully, it will put a smile on her face; unfortunately, it won't help with her family's expenses.
But you can.
In the light of the tragedy in Haiti, I think it's important to reach out to our local community and match our donations. I mentioned this in a post earlier this week in regard to the Appalachian Fund; I'm doing it again as a shout out for Haley.
Haley lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey - can't get much more local than that.
Please take a moment to check out her website, Hope for Haley, or send a donation to:
C/O Susan Chester Blattner
500 Blauvelt Avenue
Ho Ho Kus, New Jersey 07423
You must be the best teacher ever...
ReplyDeleteWhat is this about the Appalachian Fund? Please direct me to the post.
It's the Monday, January 18th post - love this organization ! It focuses on change, not charity and provides grant monies to help grassroots organizations affect change in Appalachia. One recipient's focus is to bring together women who, for the first time, are leaving their geographically and emotionally isolated so they can share skills and their stories.
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