Prince George Citizen Article

School Aids Sick Student

Written by Myrissa Krenzler
Citizen Staff
Thursday, 12 June 2008

Some of the students and staff at Cedars Christian School are going to shave their heads to raise money for one of the students who is battling cancer at B.C. Children's Hospital. The Shave for the Brave event will go June 17. It's a fundraiser for the family of Grade 5 student Sam Goertzen, who was recently diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

After the school has its year-end ceremony, more than 40 students and staff will be cutting more than eight inches of hair off their head or shaving their head. According to school principal Gerry Goertzen, Sam's father, students have already surpassed their fundraising goal of $4,200 in just two weeks. "They've been raising money for Sam by having a thermometer with people listed all the way up," he said. As the total passes each person on thermometer, they will cut their hair or shave their head.

Rose Nichiporuk, a secretary at the school, is at the top of the thermometer and once the fundraising goal of $3,000 was reached, she told students she would shave her head. That goal was surpassed Monday, Goertzen said. "There's quite an atmosphere of excitement to think that our lively secretary is going to shave off her hair," he said.

Students as young as five-years-old are participating in the event. The student council and office staff have done the majority of the organizing, but according to Sarah Darragh, teacher sponsor for student council, credit for the idea can't be given to just one person. "It's been a whole group effort by different staff members at the school and different students. I don't think we can tie it down so much to one group."

Darragh said Sam, who is still undergoing treatment at B.C. Children's Hospital, knows about the fundraiser and is very excited about it. "His dad's trying to set up a webcam so that he can watch the whole thing from where they're staying in White Rock," she said.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer that causes the body to produce too many white blood cells. It usually occurs in children between two and five-years-old. It's the most common type of childhood leukemia and is also the most successfully treated with a survival rate of more than 80 per cent, according to www.webmd.com

Goertzen said Sam will have to endure three years of treatment. He'll have to spend the first seven months in Vancouver receiving chemotherapy treatments. The next two years and five months he'll be able to continue his treatments in Prince George with a monthly visit to B.C. Children's hospital. "It's 1,095 days of treatment," Goertzen said.

He said his son is staying hopeful and upbeat throughout the treatment. "He's amazing. He faces every day with a smile on his face and a sense of humour ... those drugs are powerful and he continues to conquer it as very best that he can. He's really quite an amazing kid. Never seen anything quite like it, actually."