HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A group of students from Brenham High School has worked hard the past four months, making special gifts for young cancer patients at M.D. Anderson and Texas Children's Cancer Centers. They're out of school for the holidays, but wanted to travel to Houston to make the big delivery, themselves! We met up with them at Texas Children's.
The hard-working students created eighty lily pads to brighten the lives of young cancer patients. "It's the neatest idea - it's just a platform that fits around the bottom of an IV pole - and helps children, who are too weak to walk! Kids can either ride, sit on it, or stand on it - and be pushed around - instead of having to walk," says Mark Thiel, who introduced the idea to his Construction Technology class in September. He says they were on board, immediately! "Their hearts just got right into it - they got invested and never looked back. We were just glad to do this for the kids," exclaims Mr. Thiel.
An impressive testimony from one of the students: "It was the best experience of my life! I had a friend pass away from cancer - it was emotional to do it," explains Jordan Moore. Eric Martinez agrees and says it was empowering to know that days in the hospital will be made easier because he put his skills to good use. "Hopefully they'll be happy and it will give them hope to be active - get them up and around," smiles Eric.
After they cut-out the boards, the construction class teamed-up with a Senior Citizens organization and the school's Art Club to make sure these lily pads were painted to perfection. "This means a lot ot me because I feel like almost everybody has had a way that cancer has touched their lives in some form - friend or family, my family is hit a lot by cancer, it's really important to me," says Kadie Davis.
"It was an honor to do this and give back to our community - to help kids dealing with something they shouldn't have to be dealing with," says Alex Wester. The students hope they not only helped make the holidays brighter for patients, but every day of the year with their gifts! "It was a lot of fun knowing I get to give back to kids with cancer and other patients - I kept it in the back of my mind while making it how much kids are going to enjoy them", smiles Andrew Batchman.
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