SMPS Students, Teachers Honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month

WHEELING —The students and staff members of St. Michael Parish School participated in several activities during October in recognition of national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Students first created a Prayer Wall with pink ribbons that exhibited the names of family and friends who have battled the deadly disease. The Prayer Wall is composed of more than 150 names and is housed in the school cafeteria for all to see. Daily prayers are also offered for those touched by breast cancer.

Earlier in the month, the St. Michael school community also participated in a $1 Pink and White Dress Down Day to raise money for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which is dedicated to research, education and finding a cure to breast cancer. In total, the school has raised more than $400 for the foundation through the dress down proceeds, a collection of loose change, and other individual donations.

St. Michael seventh grader Chantz Chambers said he was proud to show his support for Breast Cancer Awareness to honor his mother who is a breast cancer survivor. “The hardest part of when my mom was sick was when she would have to go to the hospital for two weeks at a time,” Chambers said. “She’s been taking medicine over the past six years but is okay.”

Spreading the word about the importance of annual mammograms and doctor check-ups has been a passion for teacher Kim Burge, who annually coordinates St. Michael’s Breast Cancer Awareness activities with fellow junior high teacher Sarah Kilpatrick.

“I continue our Prayer Wall and dress down donation program each year to keep awareness at the forefront,” Burge said. “So many local women are diagnosed each year and it seems that our school community knows many of them. Our students recently made encouragement cards for a young woman who is a friend of a teacher’s aide and who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer – it’s important to let those people know how much we care and that we are praying for them .”

Burge added that this year’s day of remembrance was particularly bittersweet for the school community because of the loss of Jackie Zavolta, a St. Michael’s parishioner and former Kindergarten teacher’s aide who passed away from breast cancer in August. “We all felt a tremendous loss when Jackie passed away two months ago,” Burge said. “She was an inspiration to so many who continue to battle this disease day in and day out.”

To honor Zavolta’s memory, the school recently established a student scholarship in her name that will be awarded to a kindergarten student in need beginning in the 2012-13 school year. The scholarship will then follow that child throughout his/her years at St. Michael’s.

With a mission to “Challenge students spiritually and academically for the 21^st Century,” St. Michael’s boasts a rigorous faith-based curriculum, an unrivaled tradition of student community service, state-of-the-art SMARTBoard technology, and top-notch athletics and extracurricular activity programs. Welcoming students of all faiths and preparing them to be good stewards, St. Michael Parish School is “rooted in faith and committed to excellence.”

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Standing in front of the SMPS Breast Cancer Prayer Wall are (from left) SMPS preschooler Bode Burge, eighth grade teacher Kim Burge, Transitional Kindergarten student Fallon McNally, first grader Olivia Kahle, third grader J.D. LaHood, seventh grader Chantz Chambers, and seventh grade teacher Sarah Kilpatrick.

St. Michael's Parish

SMPS Students, Teachers Honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month