Kids craft more 'messages of hope'

With a little help with interpretation, the message on the page becomes clear.

The large orange blob? Probably a slightly misshapen heart.

The uneven letters, S-R-E-U-H-F K-A-S-R? That’s a kindergartener’s sounding out of “Sorry you have cancer.”

The page is part of a book students at Swan River School compiled for cancer patients at Glacier Oncology.

Bailey’s heartfelt message was included in one of last year’s books, but teacher Shelley Emslie can’t bear to throw it out, even with a batch of new “messages of hope” completed last week.

Swan River students drew the messages as part of Livestrong Day, the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s annual event to increase cancer awareness.

Emslie is a leader for the organization and while she admits the hand-drawn messages are her “pet project,” she said it never would have happened without students and staff embracing the idea.

Emslie first pitched the idea of creating messages of hope for cancer patients last year. After the books’ warm reception, the school decided to make more messages this year.

To prepare for the project, teachers talked to their students about cancer. They explained oncology, radiation and chemotherapy to eighth-graders and talked to kindergartners about “icky cells” in the body.

Emslie said she didn’t have to work hard to explain cancer to students. With the exception of a few, nearly every child at Swan River knew someone affected by the disease.

But the project’s focus isn’t on cancer’s destructive nature, Emslie said.

“We definitely want to take the positive route and empower patients with cancer,” she said.

To help students grasp the positive route, Emslie explained to them the philosophy she says led Armstrong to create the foundation in the first place.

“He believes in unity, in everybody in the fight against cancer,” she said. Then she quoted Armstrong: “Unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything.”

Emslie was inspired to volunteer with the Lance Armstrong Foundation after watching helplessly as several close friends and family members were diagnosed with cancer.

“I was tired of not being able to do anything. I wanted to do something,” she said.

One inspiration was Jean Saubert, a former teacher who volunteered in Emslie’s classroom even after she was diagnosed with breast cancer — and after her breast cancer became bone cancer.

“No matter what, she was here for these kids. She loved the kids,” Emslie said.

When Saubert went into the hospital, Emslie’s class made a large poster for her, with “We love you, Mrs. Saubert” printed in construction paper cutouts and hand-written messages from the students scrawled across it.

The poster now sits in Emslie’s classroom closet, but Saubert didn’t make it back to class. She died in May 2007.

“She truly was an inspiration and loved the kids and fueled my desire to do something with kids and cancer patients,” Emslie said.

The idea for the books came from another friend whose cancer left him too tired to watch a movie or read an entire book. Emslie, who calls herself “a photographer at heart,” wanted to put together a picture book with photos from Glacier National Park and other beautiful places she’d visited.

But printing that many photos was too expensive, she said, so Emslie tried to come up with the next best alternative.

“What person doesn’t love pictures drawn by a kid?” she asked.

Emslie told students to think about what they would want to hear if they were in the patients’ situation.

“What would bring you joy?” she asked them. “If you were in the fight of your life, what would bring joy to your heart?”

After the students had drawn pictures or written poems, Emslie compiled their messages of hope into portfolios and gave the books to Glacier Oncology. The feedback has been very positive, she said.

“The patients just love them,” she said.

Emslie hopes eventually to take the project beyond Swan River to other schools in the valley. Beyond that, she’d one day like to see similar projects at schools across the United States.

“There’s not a city out there that doesn’t need a message of hope. Not one,” she said.

Those interested in finding out more may contact Emslie at 871-7437.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.