The fight against cancer was at the forefront October 20 as Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Elementary held its annual Cancer Awareness Event.
This year the theme was “Cutting into Cancer.” Madilynn Stueben, a 4th grade student, had her long hair cut in front of the Elementary students, staff and guests. Her hair will be donated to the Locks of Love organization which turns donated hair into wigs for cancer patients who have lost their own hair through the process of treating their cancer.
A year ago Madi’s hair was deemed not quite long enough to donate but she was back again this year and her locks were removed. “This is the coolest thing and I am so proud of you for doing this because not everybody would do this,” said event organizer Janet Prins in praising Madi for donating her hair. “You don’t even know who’s going to get it and you do it for them, so that’s pretty awesome.”
This act of love and the entire event was in honor of Donna Thorn. Donna is the mother-in-law of Kristin Thorn, a preschool teacher at HMS. Donna was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
“There’s a reason every year we do this,” said Prins. “Usually we try to find someone in our school family.” She said this might be a teacher who is not well or a member of the extended family who dealing with the disease. Then they try to do something for that teacher and that family.
Students and staff brought in money to help fill the fish tank. This year the total reached $1,870. Prins gave a shout-out to the Elementary students. “You did a marvelous job this week creating an awareness for cancer,” she noted. “You made posters. We had ribbons hanging. You brought in money today. And I tell you, anybody who has walked by the fish tank – it’s pretty full.” The Thorn family is passing along the donations to the Abben Cancer Center in Spencer where Donna is receiving radiation treatments.

In a statement read by Elementary Principal Ashley Benz, the Thorn family thanked Mrs. Prins for all her hard work, Madi for her “selfless and amazing act of kindness” and the Elementary staff “for getting the word out to your families and for supporting not only Donna but all those who are fighting the battle against cancer.” They added, “We also want to say thank you to all of you who made posters, have asked Mrs. Thorn about Donna and given her hugs when she’s needed them the most.”
In expressing their appreciation for all the donations, the Thorn family stated, “It is overwhelming the love we feel from the Hawk Family. You truly know how to lift others up when they are going through tough times and we couldn’t be more grateful and thankful to all of you. Donna was a former Hawk as well as her husband and three of their grandchildren. And they are all proud to be Hawks, not just today, but forever. It is a great day to be a Hawk.”
Prins told the assembly that cancer is the second leading cause of death, behind only heart disease and that nearly two million new cancer cases were reported with over 600,000 people losing their lives due to the disease. She said it is estimated that over 16,000 kids a year between the ages of 0 and 19 will be diagnosed with cancer and that for a lot of the kids the cancer is leukemia or some type of cancer in the brain. She then shared the good news that the cancer death rate is decreasing and the cancer survival rate is increasing. “So that’s an awesome thing,” said Prins. “And that’s because the treatments are getting better and the research is getting better on how to find different cures. And it’s people like you guys that are helping that cause because the money today is going to help a cancer center figure out what they need to do with people who have cancer. So good job! Way to go guys!”
The Cancer Awareness Event concluded with the release of balloons. The balloons represented people who have cancer, people who have had cancer, and people who lost their lives to cancer. The balloon launch was done in three stages: the first involved staff members who have been affected by cancer, the second was for the Thorn family and the third was to acknowledge the rest of the cancer wars.