Students dig deep to help lunch worker

The Evergreen Junior High School gym was decked out recently with black lights and glow-in-the-dark paint. Students in white or neon clothes danced with glow sticks or snacked on pizza.

It was a fun party, students said afterward, but the dance offered more than a good time. It was a fundraiser for one of Evergreen’s own who recently found out her cancer has returned.

Danette Mitchell has worked in the Evergreen School District’s lunch program since 2004. She’s a familiar face to students who have seen her check kids through the lunch line at East Evergreen Elementary. She also handles bulk copy work for the district’s teachers and serves as a crossing guard after school.

Mitchell thought she had beaten breast cancer a few years ago. When word got out that it had returned, Evergreen students immediately wanted to help.

Student council members held “Spirit with a Cause” week. Each day of the week had its own theme; if students wanted to dress up for Retro Day, Crazy Hair Day or another wacky theme, they brought 50 cents to school.

The council also sponsored a dance whose profits were earmarked for community service events, adviser Pam Doty said. The council originally had planned to send that money to Ronald McDonald House, she said, but the students “wanted to give to somebody that they knew and could connect with.”

All told, the student council raised $367.50 for Mitchell.

“It made the kids feel good,” Doty said.

The same day the student council voted to give its money to Mitchell, students in the Evergreen GEAR UP Community Service Club made the same decision.

“Both of us came up with who the benefit would be for and both fundraisers, on the same day at two separate meetings,” said Laurel Ekern, program director for Evergreen GEAR UP, a college and career awareness program.

The club, which has about 17 members, also chose to host a dance. The students selected the neon theme, picked the decorations and decided how much to charge. They also decided to have a face-painting station, to sell glow sticks and to offer portraits to attendees.

All profits from the dance would go to Mitchell. When Ekern announced at a meeting this week that the event had brought in $216, club members cheered.

“She’s a good person. She deserves it,” eighth-grader Christine Tow said. “To help somebody else out warms my heart.”

“It’s what the club is all about,” eighth-grader Cami Citrino added.

Darian Wood, also an eighth-grader, said the club decided to help Mitchell because “we wanted to fundraise for someone we knew.” Seventh-grader Kaytie Dull said the issue was more personal for her.

“A lot of my family members died of cancer,” she said.

Club members also knew that Mitchell likely could use the help.

“Cancer’s expensive,” eighth-grader Alex Morgan said.

Mitchell knows that all too well.

She first was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2007. She went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, which seemed to take care of the cancer.

She felt fine when she went in for a recent checkup. But after running tests, her doctor discovered the cancer was back — this time in her liver, a lung and a lymph node.

“They’re tiny spots,” said her sister-in-law, Michelle Mitchell, a teacher at East Evergreen Elementary. “Things are good — as good as that can be.”

Mitchell’s doctor sent her to Seattle to get a second opinion. While there, Mitchell joined a cancer study. Now she takes the train from Whitefish to Seattle to receive her medicine once a week.

She’s taking two medications: a chemo drug and a targeted therapy. When she finishes chemotherapy, Mitchell will get an additional targeted drug.

“You stay on those as long as they’re working,” she said.

Because the drugs are part of a cancer study, two of the drugs already are paid for. The other one will be covered by insurance, Mitchell said.

But she hasn’t yet seen a bill for the tests she’s undergone, and she still has a weekly train ticket to pay for. Mitchell just finished the eighth week of a 24-week treatment plan.

Her local doctor is working with doctors in Seattle to see if Mitchell can do her weekly treatments in Kalispell, she said. If that arrangement can be made, Mitchell only will need to travel to Seattle every month.

In the meantime, she will continue to board the train in Whitefish every Wednesday night. She arrives in Seattle Thursday morning and gets back on the train Thursday evening. The schedule allows her to work Monday through Wednesday.

“It’s doable,” she said. “It’s getting very tiring, all the traveling, on top of taking care of an 8-year-old. But so far I’ve stayed healthy.”

Mitchell has support, too, from friends and family, who are more than willing to watch her daughter, Abigail, while Mitchell is in Seattle.

“Everybody’s been wonderful,” Mitchell said.

“It’s kind of overwhelming. I keep saying thank you, thank you. I would love to say something more profound.”

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