 "Photo: File Photo")
Students, teachers and preschoolers have come together in recent months to create "Bracelets For Elizabeth," a charity to raise money for childhood cancer research. This effort is in honor of Elizabeth Buell, a Laboratory Preschool student and daughter of two university professors.
Three-year-old Elizabeth started at the Laboratory School in the fall and became ill over winter break. Two days after Christmas, she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a cancer that attacks the nervous system and affects 600 to 700 children per year in the United States.
Martha Buell, Elizabeth's mother and professor of individual and family studies, said after she was diagnosed with the disease, Elizabeth had a tumor removed from her abdomen.
"It's kind of complicated to understand, but essentially she's got the cancer that grows very quickly," Buell said.
After Elizabeth's diagnosis, members of the Laboratory School and of the university's Student Association for the Education of Young Children organized various bracelet-making stations in classrooms and across campus.
The entire campus community is invited to participate in making a bracelet. Donations are accepted from those who make the bracelets for themselves. Other bracelets are sold at various locations on campus, including the Trabant University Center.
Senior Sarah Bergan, treasurer of SAEYC, worked with students and teachers to help make the bracelets.
Bergan said the idea to sell bracelets grew from the idea that they would be easy to sell.
"They're just something that everyone can wear," she said
Bergan said the bracelets also contain a small note about Buell's cancer and information about The Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2007, which recently increased funds for research in childhood cancer.
Buell said her family was offered money from the fund-raiser, but they instead had it directed toward pediatric cancer research.
Gifts for Elizabeth could be taken care of in other ways, she said.
"She would like to go to Disney World," Buell said. "But we'll contact Make-A-Wish Foundation for that."
She said people have a misconception about childhood cancer and associate it too closely with adult forms of cancer, which can be more easily treated.
"There's a lot of really good, cutting-edge treatment for cancer so people are beginning to think you can sort of live with cancer, but that's not true for children," Buell said.
Lance Armstrong's Livestrong bracelets also raise money for cancer research, but Buell said Elizabeth's bracelets are more attractive to students because they are handmade.
She said the group is trying to get a sizable donation by summer and donate the money to a program that supports research for cures, such as the National Childhood Cancer Foundation.
"You can't just give them $500," Buell said. "That's not enough. We want to raise $2,000 to $5,000."
She said she and her husband maintain a blog which keeps friends, teachers and family up-to-date on Elizabeth's daily health and her recent birthday celebration.
Tara Sutton, Elizabeth's former teacher, said Elizabeth's classmates took time out of their recess to sell lemonade and bracelets to students walking back from class.
Sutton said she and the students have also kept in touch with Elizabeth at the hospital by using Skype, an Internet video-communication service.
The Laboratory School set up a bracelet-making station in one of its classes which is open all day to parents and others who want to visit and make bracelets.
"All of the younger siblings of the children in the classes are allowed to come and hang out in the classes and make the bracelets," Sutton said.
She said Elizabeth is unable to have physical contact with her classmates because of her low white blood cell count, which leaves her prone to sickness.
Elizabeth would like to be around her classmates more than she is currently able to be, Sutton said.
"She would love to be at school," she said. "I think that's the hardest thing."
Sutton said students in her class have also been writing letters and sending cards to Elizabeth.
"It's more of an emotional support for her than anything," she said.
Beyond the short-term goal of $5,000, Sutton said the organizers of the project are trying to turn it into a foundation comparable to others that have started based on the plight of one child. They need to raise $50,000 first.
"Alex's Lemonade Stand became nationwide," she said. "We want Elizabeth's Bracelets to be like that, too."
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