When a family member gets knocked down, it’s hard not to rally around them and do whatever it takes to help them back up.
That’s what the Guthrie Center School District is attempting to do for one of their own. Longtime elementary school teacher Lori McGivney was diagnosed with breast cancer before the school year started, and all Guthrie Center schools have participated in fundraisers early on this school year to help raise money for her fight.
At the high school level, students created “baskets of love” that were then silent-auctioned off at the “pink-out” football game on October 18th. That effort raised over $2,000 for McGivney.
Throughout the first month of school, elementary students worked to collect pennies to raise money for McGivney, and they presented her with a check of more than $600 at her chili luncheon benefit at the high school in late September.
Elementary Principal Diane Flanery is proud of the efforts from everybody in the district, and she says the fundraising is really the least they can do.
“She has worked in the school district it seems like forever and this is just something that our students felt strongly that they wanted to support her. Lori is.. oh gosh, she is just such an inspiration through all of this. She teases me because I usually get teary-eyed whenever I talk about it, but she’s just been very strong.”
A particularly touching moment in this district-wide battle against cancer came at the beginning of school, when Flanery says McGivney spoke to elementary students about her illness.
“Unbelievably the kids, even with all the news about cancer in our world, some kids were still concerned that they might be able to catch it. So she went from classroom to classroom and she was able to assure them and tell them what cancer actually is and she explained it so well.”
Though no additional fundraisers have been established at this point in time, Flanery says the district will have more events in the future to continue rallying around McGivney during her cancer treatment.
McGivney has been resting and recovering in her home since her surgery at the beginning of the school year.