View full sizeJamie Francis/The OregonianAnneliese Hugo and Suzy Shaver greet their first-grade classmate, Ethan Lister, with a hug on the playground at Mulino Elementary School. During cancer treatments, Ethan is often late for school, but his class is quick to welcome him with hugs like this one and encouragement according to their teacher, Jodi Stith.
Part 2 of a 3-part series
Monday: A hard choice at any age
Today: Learning to love
Wednesday: The giftSarah Gorbett walked across the Molalla High School parking lot to her car, climbed inside and called the one person she is not embarrassed to cry in front of — her mom.
The 17-year-old junior had come from the school’s leadership class, where she and 25 other teens chose which family in need would get the money the students hoped to raise during the last three weeks of February. Sarah, as chair of the selection committee for Share the Love, had to call the nominated families now and tell two of the three they were not picked.
Stacy Gorbett, who knew this would be an emotional day for her daughter, cried when Sarah cried. Sarah is a big-hearted teen who set out donation cans in Molalla businesses during the sixth grade to help raise $10,000 for a friend facing a kidney transplant. When Sarah read aloud excerpts from the nomination letters, Stacy understood how hard it was for all the teens to choose between a grandfather with a brain tumor, a first-grader with lymphoma and a beloved elementary-school librarian with breast cancer.
Stacy told Sarah that she was proud of her, proud of the leadership class and proud of their teacher, Jenny Brauckmiller. Stacy advised her daughter to focus on the positive when she made the calls. “Think of how much this will help the family you chose.”
Sarah returned to school, tears out of her system. With phone in hand, she dialed the first number.
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Six miles down Highway 213 from Molalla, past farm fields and weathered homesteads, past the Liberal Country Store and across from the Mulino Cafe, Mulino Elementary School teacher Jodi Stith was in her first-grade classroom during lunch when Sarah called.
Mrs. Stith ran to the teacher’s lounge, where she spread the good news. The letter she wrote to nominate Ethan Lister, a boy in her …
Read the original article at Oregonlive
