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Getting by with a little help from her friends
(by Karen F. Mrnarevic - January 09, 2008)
When a fellow Girl Scout was stricken with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Township of Washington Brownie Troop 308 decided to make helping and supporting her the center of their service agenda. Brianna Commerford, a fourth grader at
Jessie
F.
George
Elementary School was diagnosed with the disease in September of 2007. After telling her Brownie troop the news and explaining the treatment she would have to undergo, the girls instantly began planning on how they would work to make sure Brianna feels as loved and comfortable as possible during chemotherapy.
“Brianna told the girls she would lose her hair,” says Brianna’s mother,
Lorraine , “so they decided to have a hair-cutting party. They said, ‘We will cut our hair into Brianna bobs.’” Within days, the troop and some troop mothers organized a hair cutting “extravaganza,” at which many of the girls in the troop cut their hair into short bobs. The troop collected 50 inches of hair, and donated it to Locks of Love.
Brianna’s treatment commenced in October, and when she was feeling well enough to come to another Brownie meeting, she had lost all of her hair. In order to make her feel comfortable,
Lorraine says, “The girls all started wearing bandanas.”
The girls, who have been in the same troop together since kindergarten, were deeply effected by Brianna’s condition. They decided that there was no better way to put their energy and enthusiasm to good use than to help Brianna and other kids like her who are suffering from cancer. In fact, the girls laid aside their original “Bronze Award” project, which they had been planning since the summer, and began working on a new project, which they call “Kids Caring for Kids.”
“Now they have all been touched personally by cancer,” says
Lorraine , “and they feel a personal obligation and a real drive to help. And it’s not just Brianna, it’s all kids with cancer.”
The troop turned to Brianna for advice on what kids undergoing chemotherapy might need to make the process less unpleasant. Brianna told them that the drugs administered in chemotherapy leave a metallic taste in her mouth, so the girls began donating lollipops to the Columbia Presbyterian cancer treatment clinic. Brianna also told them that treatments take all day, and can be uncomfortable and scary, so the girls started collecting small stuffed animals, Beanie Babies, to donate to all the kids undergoing treatment. “At the end of their treatments, the kids will have a collection of beanie babies to take home,” says
Lorraine .
The troop’s efforts have caught on in school as well. There are girls in the troop from Kettler, Washington and George schools, and the girls have written up letters to distribute among other scout troops at their schools. They have also set up collection bins in their schools, where people can donate new or gently used beanie babies and Webkins. The response, says
Lorraine , has been overwhelming. “We are inundated with toys.”
She says that they have accumulated so many Beanie Babies that they are able to donate weekly to both Columbia Presbyterian’s and Hackensack University Medical Center’s cancer clinics, and she applauds the troop for how many ideas that have come up with to add to the scope of the project. “They are really a special bunch of girls. They have been so great to Brianna.”
Lorraine says that in the past, the troop had been more focused on fun activities than public service, but now they are constantly trying to figure out what they can do to help people.
After discovering that there are two other little girls in the
Township of
Washington who have cancer, Brianna and the troop created custom Build a Bear teddy bears for each of them. They then went as a group to each child’s house, sang Christmas carols and presented the bears. “The girls love doing stuff like that,” says
Lorraine . In the spirit of the season, the troop went on to create hand-made ornaments, which the girls sold, raising about $100. With the proceeds, they set up a fund from which they will draw for future Kids Caring for Kids projects.
Lorraine says she is still amazed and awed by the support the community has offered to her family in their time of need. “There is a group of women in town who make baskets for Brianna every week for her to bring to treatment,” she says. “I don’t even know some of them.”
According to
Lorraine , the nurses and doctors at Columbia Presbyterian, whom she and Brianna have come to know quite well, cannot believe how the community has put itself at the Commerfords’ service. “The nurses say they have never seen anything like this.”
Lorraine says she recently met many people whose children are suffering from cancer, and many of them say that since their children have fallen ill and have been forced to leave school, they have become disconnected and isolated. “A lot of other people I meet in the same situation say they basically have dropped out of the community.” This makes her all the more grateful for the support her whole family has received.
“A year ago, if you asked me how I like living in
Washington
Township ,”
Lorraine says she may have given an ambiguous answer. Now she says her answer is clear, “This is the kind of community you want to live in… It is really heart warming that all of this is happening for us at such a terrible time in our lives.”
Brianna is halfway through her treatment now, and her mother says she is doing very well and being very brave. She has even started her own Web site, on which she communicates with her friends and supporters, and updates them on the progress of her treatment. “She’ll tell people, ‘My [white blood cell] counts are high today, so you can come visit,” says
Lorraine .
Furthermore, says Lorraine, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has decided to come to the
George
School on Feb. 4 to make a presentation to the children on the “Pennies for Patients” program, and “they are using Brianna as their poster-child.”
For more information on Kids Caring for Kids and how to donate, contact Linda Frazza at 201-664-4849. For more information on the Pennies for Patients program visit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Web site: www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.
Karen F. Mrnarevic's e-mail address is Mrnarevic@northjersey.com.
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