WACS Community Supports Principal Diagnosed With Cancer
WESTFIELD — Hearing “SHAVE THEIR HEAD” being chanted from a school gymnasium might give off a medieval punishment vibe, but no — it was hundreds of pink-clad Westfield Academy and Central School students chanting for the impending hair trimming of their teachers and administrators.
The event, Razors For Rockey, was held Monday in support for WACS principal Dr. Mary Rockey who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
When Rockey walked into a faculty meeting with her hair cut short, she said, “I’m just trying to get used to it. It’s not going to last long.” That passing comment made fifth-grade teacher Michael Putney think.
“After she said that I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t we do something to show our support as a staff, as a community?'” Putney said. “So, I talked with my fellow grade-level people, Wade Dellow and Janelle Post, and our physical education teacher, Mr. (Kevin) Harp, and we came up with this idea that we could have people volunteer to shave their heads and have kids and teachers raise money for this great cause.”
A number of teachers had their hair dyed pink before getting it shaved off by students (and tidied up later by adults) such as Dellow, Putney, Val Gelsimino and even superintendent David Davison.
Over the course of two weeks, the WACS community raised $5,500. All of the money will be donated to Roswell Park Cancer Institute for cancer research, Putney said.
“Get your mammograms, because that’s how they found it!” Rockey said regarding her 11 mm lesion.
Her recovery is “in the 90s,” she said, meaning she has a 90 percent chance of beating her cancer. The lesion has been taken out and for now she’s in the clear, though she is going through chemotherapy as a preventative measure.
Still, being the quiet person Rockey considers herself to be, she’s excited at the prospect of how much the funds raised will help others with cancer.
“I tend to be the kind of person that is pretty quiet, but I had a teacher say to me today, ‘Mary, it’s not about you. It’s about all the people that the money can help,'” Rockey said. “So I had to reframe the way that I was thinking about it a little bit, because it isn’t about me — it’s about all the people that this money that they raised will help.”
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