Post by Todd B on Jan 28, 2007 9:53:00 GMT -5
Bedford Effect' spreads love to youngster
2 teachers' 10-year-old niece is cancer victim
By BENJAMIN ALEXANDER-BLOCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Rachael Sepesy, 18, of Ida, Mich., has cut off her hair and hopes to give it to Katie DeGrace, 10, for Christmas.
Monroe County teenagers have adopted Katie, of Frankenmuth, Mich., who is going through chemotherapy after she had a large ovarian tumor removed in late October.
Because Katie's aunt and uncle, Kari and David DeGrace, are teachers at Bedford High School, the high school's students have held various fundraisers for Katie's cause.
Now the yuletide spirit is spreading to Ida Township, where Rachael heard there was a 10-year-old girl who had lost her hair because of chemo, but who "once had the same color hair as you."
Rachael immediately rushed to a salon and is now waiting for her hair to be made into a wig.
She hopes to give it to Katie in person. They have never met, but Rachael said she realizes "how hard it must be for Katie to go through it all."
Katie calls it the "cancer mess."
Katie's father, Chip DeGrace, calls the whole ordeal a "journey."
Just last week, Katie's temperature reached 102.2 degrees. They called 911 and Katie was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for a few nights - in her favorite pink pajamas and under her pink cow blanket.
"Watching [my wife] Vicki walk with the gurney, holding Katie's hand as they made their way down the hall, I had an empty feeling, a worried feeling. I don't worry much, but this is my baby, our baby, and it was beyond my control," Mr. DeGrace wrote on a blog he updates daily. He says writing is therapeutic.
"It's absolutely heart-warming - like the ultimate love letter from a father to his daughter," said Katie's aunt, Kari DeGrace, about the "carepage."
Over 1,100 posts have been on the page's message board, from people as far-flung as New Zealand and Victoria Island, Canada.
The site, named katiedegrace, is on www.carepages.com, which is sponsored through the University of Michigan Health System.
By Friday night, the recent "journey" had concluded, and the entire DeGrace family was home, resting well with the relief that Katie's fever had quieted.
More than $11,000 has been raised through fund-raisers in Katie's name for the Mott Children's Hospital of Ann Arbor.
Mr. DeGrace likens everyone's support "to a cup running over."
Bedford High School had a Toys for Tots campaign that, in just over a week and a half, raised 400 toys in Katie's name.
And earlier this month, the high school had a "Hats Off to Katie" drive that let students wear a hat all day in school after they made a $1 donation. The drive raised about $500.
"The kids at Bedford High School are awesome," Mr. DeGrace said. He calls it the "Bedford Effect."
"It would be very easy to simply quantify this effect, in terms of the value of toys and money … [but] the real Bedford Effect goes far beyond anything that could be measured in a cash register.
"The real Bedford Effect goes into each of our hearts and souls."
2 teachers' 10-year-old niece is cancer victim
By BENJAMIN ALEXANDER-BLOCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Rachael Sepesy, 18, of Ida, Mich., has cut off her hair and hopes to give it to Katie DeGrace, 10, for Christmas.
Monroe County teenagers have adopted Katie, of Frankenmuth, Mich., who is going through chemotherapy after she had a large ovarian tumor removed in late October.
Because Katie's aunt and uncle, Kari and David DeGrace, are teachers at Bedford High School, the high school's students have held various fundraisers for Katie's cause.
Now the yuletide spirit is spreading to Ida Township, where Rachael heard there was a 10-year-old girl who had lost her hair because of chemo, but who "once had the same color hair as you."
Rachael immediately rushed to a salon and is now waiting for her hair to be made into a wig.
She hopes to give it to Katie in person. They have never met, but Rachael said she realizes "how hard it must be for Katie to go through it all."
Katie calls it the "cancer mess."
Katie's father, Chip DeGrace, calls the whole ordeal a "journey."
Just last week, Katie's temperature reached 102.2 degrees. They called 911 and Katie was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for a few nights - in her favorite pink pajamas and under her pink cow blanket.
"Watching [my wife] Vicki walk with the gurney, holding Katie's hand as they made their way down the hall, I had an empty feeling, a worried feeling. I don't worry much, but this is my baby, our baby, and it was beyond my control," Mr. DeGrace wrote on a blog he updates daily. He says writing is therapeutic.
"It's absolutely heart-warming - like the ultimate love letter from a father to his daughter," said Katie's aunt, Kari DeGrace, about the "carepage."
Over 1,100 posts have been on the page's message board, from people as far-flung as New Zealand and Victoria Island, Canada.
The site, named katiedegrace, is on www.carepages.com, which is sponsored through the University of Michigan Health System.
By Friday night, the recent "journey" had concluded, and the entire DeGrace family was home, resting well with the relief that Katie's fever had quieted.
More than $11,000 has been raised through fund-raisers in Katie's name for the Mott Children's Hospital of Ann Arbor.
Mr. DeGrace likens everyone's support "to a cup running over."
Bedford High School had a Toys for Tots campaign that, in just over a week and a half, raised 400 toys in Katie's name.
And earlier this month, the high school had a "Hats Off to Katie" drive that let students wear a hat all day in school after they made a $1 donation. The drive raised about $500.
"The kids at Bedford High School are awesome," Mr. DeGrace said. He calls it the "Bedford Effect."
"It would be very easy to simply quantify this effect, in terms of the value of toys and money … [but] the real Bedford Effect goes far beyond anything that could be measured in a cash register.
"The real Bedford Effect goes into each of our hearts and souls."