Chelsea's Medical and Healing Fund

Dear friends of Chelsea,

I am Chelsea’s mother, and am writing this on her behalf. As some of you may know, Chelsea has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer which has metastasized into a lymph node in her neck. She will be having surgery on Tuesday December 6.

I am writing to help raise funds to help her through this medical emergency that she is facing. I am reaching out to our wide community to help with the many medical bills she will incur (beyond what her insurance will cover). Also, in just this September she started working at her current school in Seattle Public Schools as a 1st grade teacher. Because she is so new in her position she will not have enough sick time to cover the 2 weeks she will need to be off from her job. Her finances have already been tight since has had hefty student loans. The medical bills and unpaid time away from work will be an additional strain. She has been an elementary education teacher, always working with the underserved. She has had challenges with her work situations – in her first job at Chicago Public Schools, she was preparing to start her second year and was laid off in the massive teacher layoffs and was unemployed for the year. That was the year she completed the English Language Learners Program while searching for a teaching position. The next year, jobs were still scarce and she worked as a teaching assistant before deciding to move back to Seattle where she grew up.

It is very difficult for her to ask for help so I am stepping up to help her.  She has always been independent and self-sufficient.

Chelsea has a huge heart and has always been generous, hardworking and given to others selflessly. Even though she was raised in a busy single parent home, one of our family values was to think of others and share and help when we were able. She grew up donating her time and effort to those in need. Together we volunteered at Northwest Harvest, raised money for a domestic violence shelter, took meals to families in need, organized Red Cross collections after disasters, along with many other activities. Once she became an elementary school teacher, she continued going above and beyond in caring for her students. Last year at her school, she created “Maslow’s Closet”. She submitted and received funding for a grant to stock the closet with basic supplies for children and families with the notion that when children have their basic needs met they are able to learn better. This year, she has already received grant funding for uniforms for her students whose families are unable to afford them. One week after she received her cancer diagnosis, she called me excited about how, during a parent teacher conference, she was able to offer a new pair of uniform pants to a family to replace the pants this girl was wearing that she had noticed had big holes in the knees. Chelsea was so happy.  Rather than think about her own cancer and difficulties she is thinking about her students.

Chelsea is a joy and an inspiration! I hope you will help in a small way if you can to help make this challenging time just a little easier for her.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Liz Gabzdyl