Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The right words
Gentry students create books about cancer.
It was a very serious occasion. That was clear because a gaggle of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders can never be silent unless it’s a very serious occasion. And the youngsters from the Gentry Public Schools were not only silent on this Friday morning, but polite, attentive, curious and keeping a watchful eye on their teacher, Sammie Cunningham. They knew this visit to the Washington Regional Cancer Support Home in Fayetteville would be an emotional one for their mentor, who lost her mother to cancer in August.
“It’s a tough subject — even for kids not going through it,” Cunningham says of cancer in the family. “Probably 95 percent of the kids in my classes had their only exposure to it through me. They kind of traveled that journey with me.”
Cunningham learned about the Cancer Support Home when she took her mother, Julia Baird, to its
wig boutique.
“She was really, really afraid of losing her hair,” Cunningham remembers. “She never lost one hair on her head! Her hair never even got thin. But the day before we came back in for chemo, we went and got a wig.”
Cunningham brought her students in the Quest program for gifted and talented students back to the Cancer Support Home to make a delivery. During her mother’s illness, she had asked them to write books that would introduce cancer to very young children — like Baird’s 5-year-old great-grandson, Chase.
“It was very important to her that we explain to Chase what was going on,” Cunningham remembers. “She didn’t want to scare him and get him thinking Granny was going to die. We were hoping that wasn’t going to happen.
“I looked and looked for a book to help explain this process to him,” she continues. “There were lots of books and resources for teenagers and adults, but there just wasn’t that much for explaining to a little person.
“I challenged my kids with that, and they jumped on it.”
CANCER EDUCATION
“I haven’t had much experience with cancer besides with Ms. Cunningham,” says 15-year-old Autumn Broglen. “Going through that journey with her definitely taught me a lot of things — not just about cancer, but also about the more emotional and compassionate side of things.
“Taking these books to the support home was very important to me, and it really showed me that, not just with cancer, but with anything, there are always people willing and ready to help.”
Broglen, like the rest of Cunningham’s students, was surprised to learn all the services the Cancer Support Home offers — and Ryan Worley, the manager, was eager to share. In the 22 years the historic white house on North Woolsey Avenue has been open to the public, “We’ve been able to do a lot of important, special things,” he told them. The first is offering a “warm and hospitable space” for cancer patients receiving treatment anywhere in Northwest Arkansas — not just at Washington Regional.
“They come from all different types of careers, all ages, all walks of life,” Worley says, “and from all over this area, even from Oklahoma and Missouri. We provide a place they can spend the night, so they don’t have to drive two hours or more back and forth.”
The Cancer Support Home has four guest rooms, but Worley says
it is probably best known for the wig boutique, designed to be a “private and comfortable place,” where clients are assisted by trained volunteers and staff to explore and select head coverings.
Wigs, hats, scarves and turbans are available for individuals who have lost their hair during cancer treatment, and post-mastectomy supplies including bras and breast prostheses are also provided. That’s in addition to the “Look Good, Feel Better” program created by the American Cancer Society, which arranges for volunteer licensed cosmetologists to explain and demonstrate how to cope with body and skin changes resulting from chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“Coming to get a wig is often the first time someone admits to herself that she has cancer,” Worley told the students. “So they
get a wig — but they also get support and encouragement. The scariest words in the world are ‘You have cancer.’”
The Cancer Support Home also offers counseling, support groups, financial assistance, screening clinics and the resource library where the Gentry students’ books will be shelved.
“We keep a lot of pamphlets
and literature to help people get informed,” says Jessica Magnusson, the program coordinator. “It’s one more small thing we can do that helps lift a burden that seems quite large.”
“Even after all the research they did on the Internet, they didn’t know there was a place like this to help families,” says Cunningham of her students’ visit to the Cancer Support
Home.
“My only hope for the books we wrote is for someone to read them and
learn, and begin to learn what I did,” says Broglen. “Who knows, perhaps we can even inspire someone
to learn more like Ms. Cunningham did for us!”
And, Cunningham adds, her mother would be proud.