
Student Support for Second Hand Cancer
Donation protected
The Big C always takes a front-row seat in students' lives, although teachers may not always see it behind the strong faces in the classroom. They hold it all in, strong on the outside, strong for themselves, strong for their parents or loved ones. It lurks behind the scenes and only comes out when a student feels loved and supported at school to share what they are going through. Experiencing this firsthand, I would like to support kids struggling with a close family member's recent or recurring cancer diagnosis.
I am a 7th-grade science teacher, and these middle school children are gems. They bring it all - the weird, the ugly, the beautiful, the awe-inspiring, everything - they just don’t always let you know it’s there. I firmly believe that if students don’t feel loved, heard and welcomed, they will not learn. Information will stick if they know they can take risks, feeling safe to be wrong.
It is my passion to connect with these kids. The past few years have been so challenging for so many different reasons for such a variety of people.
During the 2020-2021 school year, classrooms became emptier, bedrooms transformed into learning spaces and our voices taught wherever students had WiFi! Turns out we didn’t teach less but recognized what was vital to our teaching practices. Love. Loving those kids from the classroom in person to their homes via video teaching. They listened with silent audio and dark cameras, our voices blending into the background noise of video games and TV shows. The new way of teaching challenged me to love them more. To find out what they were playing, what shows they were watching and what music they were listening to. This year students entrusted in my care learned the most I’d ever taught before.
My initial fundraising is for a young man I had that year whose mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. I’m so blessed to have had him in my classroom. His mom is a badass fighter and is kicking cancer’s butt! I am completing an Olympic triathlon in September in their name; I swim, bike and run for them. I fight for the times they feel knocked down; for the times they can’t, iTri. I am raising $100 for every mile I swim, bike or run for a total of $2,810 to support this young man’s future academic expenses.
Please help me support kids battling secondhand cancer.
Organizer
Payson Hendrix
Organizer
Hudson, MA