2 weeks Ago
Students, teachers and parents at Jefferson Elementary in Warrenville took a lap around the school on Friday, Oct. 25 to show their support for breast cancer survivors and patients as part of a schoolwide-effort to raise awareness and contributions for Piedmont Augusta’s Breast Health Center. The Pink Out Day and Miracle Mile Walk was put together by a committee of 15 teachers, led by fifth-grade math teacher and breast cancer survivor Dr.
Gwendolyn Ivey. “Cancer affects everybody,” she said. All of the school’s approximately 550 students walked the course of about one mile.
Those who could donated $1. More than 160 pink T-shirts were sold, and about $2,000 had been raised, Ivey said. Beginning at 12:30 p.
m., every 20 minutes a group of students emerged from the front door of the school, starting with kindergarteners followed by first- and second-graders, then third- and fourth-graders and finally fifth-graders. The school’s youngest children gathered behind a banner attached to yard sticks held by two fifth-grade girls.
“Play the music, coach!” Ivey called. Physical education teacher Corey Hulsebus hit play on his smartphone and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child boomed through the parking lot. The procession of 4- and 5-year-old children began their walk.
Twenty seconds later, one shouted “I’m tired!” “Keep going,” a teacher encouraged. “We get popsicles at the end.” “Yay!” the children shouted as their procession followed the banner, which read “HOPE.
Breast Cancer awareness month. Believe. Together, we win” A group of loyal and eager fifth-graders were recruited to stop traffic entering the parking lot and direct walkers around the course, cheering them on as they went.
As she walked, Ivey spoke about her own experience with breast cancer. She said she received a mammogram every year after age 40, but on Sept. 7, 2017 she accidentally found a lump in her breast when reaching across her body to change the television channel with the remote control.
She was 47. At the time she was an assistant principal at Deer Chase Elementary in Hephzibah, Ga. She was sitting in her office after the end of the school day when she received the call with her biopsy result of stage two/grade three, which according to the American Cancer Society is a fast-growing tumor likely to spread to other parts of the body.
She retired from the school system and entered treatment. “They moved me quick,” she said. She taught her 75-year-old mother how to use Facetime so they could communicate during her treatment, which was chemotherapy from the end of November 2017 until the middle of March 2018.
She received radiation treatment every day during May 2018. She stayed with her parents when she didn’t feel well, and at her home when she felt OK. “My faith really got me through it,” she said.
“It was a rollercoaster ride, but you just got to go through it.” She said the lingering effects of the treatment are joint pain and neuropathy in her fingers and toes. “I just pray it doesn’t come back,” she said, adding that she’s reduced stress in her life.
“I like peace.” As the kindergartners enjoyed their popsicles, Ivey had two minutes until the next group of students would begin their circuit around the school. “Bring the banner! We’ve got another group! We gotta go!” she told her fifth-grade standard bearers.
They walked quickly through the cafeteria, down two hallways, past the front office and out the front door, where the first- and second graders and their teachers were beginning to assemble. “I’m going to get 15,000 steps today,” Ivey said. Bonnie Fulgham, a paraprofessional and school bus driver who has worked at Jefferson for 30 years, cheered on the students near the front of the school.
“I just do everything I can for breast cancer and for the survivors, because it runs in my family,” she said. Fulgham said her mother lived with metastatic breast cancer for 14 years before her death in 2007. She said she participates each year in the Piedmont Augusta Foundation’s Miracle Mile Walk in downtown Augusta, which according to the foundation “supports Piedmont Augusta's Randy W.
Cooper, M.D., Center for Breast Health Services and the mobile mammography unit, which provide life-saving screenings to women in our community regardless of their ability to pay.
” This year’s event, scheduled for Oct. 19, was cancelled to damage from Hurricane Helene. Paraprofessional Crystal Lewis accompanied a group of students around the course.
She said her 84-year-old mother went through treatment twice and had two single mastectomies. “I was 17 when she was first diagnosed,” she said. “She’s still here!” She said it was gratifying to participate in the walk with her students.
“It’s great. I always support the fight against breast cancer,” she said. Fifth-grader Jakob Herring’s aunt Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and is currently receiving treatment.
He said he liked being part of the effort. “It a nice feeling, because you know you’re doing something for the world and people,” he said. His mother, April Herring, said she and Jakob walked for everybody, but especially for her sister.
Herring had written “Mandy Strong” on the back of her hand. “We’re just praying for everybody who’s fighting. Just keep up the faith and keep strong,” she said.
As Ivey walked with the third- and fourth-graders she said, “A friend told me I’m not a survivor, I’m a conqueror.” When the fifth graders had completed the final lap of the day, Ivey posted for photographs and got a popsicle for herself. “I will sleep well tonight.
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