Snohomish County NewsEmerson Elementary third-graders are making kits for cancer patients.
Michael Whitney photo
When cancer impacted teacher Kim Moritz’ family, she thought of a way for the community to help others.
All of the third-grade classes at Emerson Elementary are building cancer kits for patients at the Everett Cancer Partnership and can use your help.
Going in the kits are blankets, hats, nuts, sugarless gum and other items. The list of items was developed by Moritz’ class.
The lesson is to pay it forward.
“What it means to us to pay it forward is doing something nice for other people,” Sam Matson, 8, said. He said that after hearing about the needs of the cancer patients, making kits felt like the right thing to do.
The students wrote letters to businesses as part of a lesson on professional writing. Already, Fred Meyer, Kusler’s, Target and Cash and Carry have stepped up.
“If we didn’t know what the stores had, teacher would help us,” Kira Wright, 8, said.
They also are writing positive messages and poetry to go in the kits.
“Nice encouraging things,” Matson said.
The project made the students think about their family members who experienced cancer. The class was excited to hear that someone donated $100 to the cause.
The students also learned cancer patients need high protein foods like beef jerky to keep their strength up.
“They don’t feel like eating when in chemotherapy, but doctors want them to eat high-protein foods because the medicine takes away proteins,” Lyric Crane, 8, said.
They also are putting hats, scarves, mittens and socks in.
“We have so much stuff,” Shance Barnes, 8, said.
Hats keep “the people that are there warm because their hair falls out,” Holli Welcker, 9, said. “The body can get cold.”
Paisley Tallmon, 8, said it is a great project.
It is important people donate because “they’ll be saving a whole bunch of lives,” she said.
Paying it forward has an impact on others.
“If one person makes a good decision, then other people will make good decisions,” Tallmon said.
The students are waiting for donations and then will decorate the kits, Crane said.
The project is fun, Barnes said.
“They’re going to be proud of Emerson, they’re going to like this school and they’re going to feel much better,” he said.
Moritz decided to have her class make kits after her mother passed away from ovarian cancer earlier this year. Her mother fought the cancer for nine years and her daughter, now a high school freshman, years ago thought of making baskets for cancer patients.
“I thought, ‘this would be a great lesson to pay it forward’,” Moritz said.
The people receiving the kits are going to love it, Moritz said.
Donations for the kits are accepted until December.
Donations can be dropped off at Emerson Elementary or call the classroom phone of Kim Moritz at 360-563-7173.
By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published Nov. 4, 2009
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Historic agency says port ‘complicit’ in developer’s plan for Collins
EVERETT - A statewide historic preservation organization wants to end a 4-year-old agreement governing the fate of the Collins Building, the remaining relic of Everett’s lumber mill past, and begin a new process.
The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation says the Port of Everett was “both aware of and complicit in” a plan to remove the historic building, which breaks the terms of their agreement to explore rehabilitating it.
The Washington Trust based their dispute on a 2004 memo — between the port’s development partner, Maritime Trust, and a public relations firm — outlining strategies for quickly removing the Collins Building.
The port has denied being part of the developer’s plan to remove the building. The memo surfaced last month during a public records request of the port’s files along with documents showing that the port was aware Maritime Trust met with the public relations firm.
The Washington Trust asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Oct. 30 to nullify their 2005 agreement with the port and preservationist groups to review options for restoring the building, citing the port’s “inherent” conflict of interest. The Washington Trust wants “a new process ... that is free from any perception of a predetermined outcome,” according to the letter to the Army Corps written by field director Chris Moore.
Historic Everett submitted a similar dispute to the Army Corps this past summer, before the memo was released. The Army Corps has not yet responded, but the federal Advisory Council for Historical Preservation determined, before it was aware of the memo, that the port did not have a conflict of interest.
By LINDSAY TOLER
Published Nov. 4, 2009