Students at Vienna Elementary Reach Out to a Fellow Student and to Children at Brenner Children's Hospital

Principal Teresa Hewitt with Parker Gaillard

Here is what Teresa Hewitt, the principal at Vienna Elementary School, had to say about the school’s holiday project:  

“Parker Gaillard, a kindergartener at our school, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September. His mother, Lori Gaillard, teaches here at Vienna and his brother Alston is in fifth grade here. The Gaillards have been part of our Vienna family for many years.

“This school community is very loving and immediately wanted to know what to do for the Gaillards. The staff did the traditional things like meals, offers to help with Alston, prayers and other support. What the students have done is the most touching. They immediately wanted to help.

“Mrs. Mary Brooke Adkins is Parker’s teacher. His classmates made him a sleep shirt with all of their names on it. They sent notes, cards, pictures, and other presents to give him something to do while he was having chemotherapy and out of school. They even have t-shirts that have a heart on them and say Team Parker. The rest of our students began asking what they could do and also sent cards and letters to Parker.

“Gabrielle Baber, a fourth grader, wrote me a beautiful letter with a school-wide plan to support Parker. Each classroom would have a milk jug in it for ‘Pennies for Parker’ and decorated boxes would be placed throughout the school for students to put cards, letters, and other mementos in them for Parker. I asked Lori where she would like the collected money to go to and she said, ‘Brenner (Children’s Hospital).’

“Mrs. Davis and I decided to order the plastic sports bracelets for the children to purchase. That money would go to Brenner’s as well. They are green with We (heart) Parker on them. Green is Parker’s favorite color and ‘The heart of Parker’ has been the inspiration for our school, community, and Parker’s Church family. Abbie Bennett, a fourth-grader here, told her parents what we were doing. The Bennetts bought us the bracelets to sell.

“In October, the Student Council and Ambassadors held a doughnut sale. They sold over 200 dozen in less than twenty minutes before school started on morning. Each child then contributed ten dollars. We took that money and spent the morning yesterday building bears and other stuffed animals at ‘Build-A-Bear’ for the children who are currently at Brenner’s. We made 30 bears in all. As children come into the hospital this holiday season, they will be given one of our bears. The children had so much fun yesterday. One child said, ‘This has been the best morning. It felt so good to do something like this for somebody else.

“At noon yesterday, Jeff Ungetheim, met us in front of ‘Build a Bear.’ Jeff is the director of the Cancer Support Program at Brenner’s. We had hoped to visit Brenner’s to deliver the Bears but couldn’t because of the compromised immune systems of the patients there. So Brenner’s came to us.

“We had our own little ceremony in the middle of the mall with Jeff in his Santa hat and my students adorned with their decked out bears. Gabby Baber presented Jeff with almost $700 and Rami Shelton, student council president, and Alston, brother of Parker, presented Jeff with a $1,400 check from the sale of our bracelets. Then the children took all their bears in their boxes out to the loading dock behind the store and loaded them into Jeff’s SUV to be taken to the hospital.

“So that’s our story.

“When Parker was diagnosed in September his chest was full of tumors, one which was pushing his heart and had moved it several centimeters. Parker is now cancer-free. He finished his last chemo treatment and got to ‘ring the bell’ at Baptist.”