Pepin honored by 'Greatest Show on Earth' Circus recognizes 12-year-old Alfred girl for lifting spirits of cancer patients
photo by Shawn P. Sullivan Sydney Pepin, 12, of Alfred, has been honored for her generosity and thoughtfulness in assembling and distributing gift bags to patients who are beginning chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Cancer Care Center of York County in South Sanford.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
ALFRED/LIMERICK — Cindy Smith, the director of the Limerick Public Library, spent October handing out bookmarks to patrons that encouraged them to nominate a child for The Barnum Award.
The award, presented during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth" at the Civic Center in late October, recognizes children between the ages of 6 and 14 who have made a positive impact on their communities — by selflessly undertaking a project, for example, or using creative and innovative thinking to develop a solution to a problem.
Smith was inspired to do some nominating of her own when the Oct. 7 issue of the Sanford News arrived at her library. At the top of the front page, a feature story showcased 12-year-old Sydney Pepin, of Alfred, who had started assembling gift bags to give to patients as they started radiation treatment or chemotherapy at the Cancer Care Center of York County in South Sanford. Sydney had visited local businesses and individuals and asked them to donate items to put into the bags. Many of them answered the call, and Sydney soon was able to start providing bags filled with bottles of juice, crossword puzzles and word searches, chap-stick, toothpaste, lotion and other soothing goods to patients as they began their frightening and uncertain journey through cancer treatments.
Smith called Pepin's mother, Sue, a teacher at Margaret Chase Elementary School in Sanford, and asked for permission to nominate Sydney. Sue Pepin gave it — and followed up a few weeks later with a phone call to Smith, informing her that Sydney had won the award.
"It worked!" Smith said of her efforts to have Sydney recognized.
Smith had never met Sydney before, but the girl's generosity connected with her. Smith's brother-in-law and sister-in-law both have cancer and are currently undergoing treatment. Her brother-in-law, in fact, is undergoing treatment at the Sanford cancer center. Reading the Sanford News story, Smith could see that Sydney had "put her heart right into" the gift bag project.
On Oct. 28, Sydney attended the circus in Portland. She took the stage at one point, in full view of a center packed with families, and a clown announced her and four other young recipients of the Barnum Award. The clown — who had orange hair and big feet, Sydney said — gave the audience in the civic center a brief summary of Sydney's project. He then placed a medal around her neck.
How did it feel to be recognized?
"It feels really good," Sydney said.
But here's what has her really excited about the award — it came with a prize of $750 that must be used for her project. The amount, Sydney said, is enough for her to purchase and fill at least a dozen more gift bags for cancer patients.
Sure enough, Sue Pepin said she and Sydney recently handed out more bags to patients on one particular day when surely they needed all the encouragement they could get as they began their treatment — the day before Thanksgiving.
ALFRED/LIMERICK — Cindy Smith, the director of the Limerick Public Library, spent October handing out bookmarks to patrons that encouraged them to nominate a child for The Barnum Award.
The award, presented during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth" at the Civic Center in late October, recognizes children between the ages of 6 and 14 who have made a positive impact on their communities — by selflessly undertaking a project, for example, or using creative and innovative thinking to develop a solution to a problem.
Smith was inspired to do some nominating of her own when the Oct. 7 issue of the Sanford News arrived at her library. At the top of the front page, a feature story showcased 12-year-old Sydney Pepin, of Alfred, who had started assembling gift bags to give to patients as they started radiation treatment or chemotherapy at the Cancer Care Center of York County in South Sanford. Sydney had visited local businesses and individuals and asked them to donate items to put into the bags. Many of them answered the call, and Sydney soon was able to start providing bags filled with bottles of juice, crossword puzzles and word searches, chap-stick, toothpaste, lotion and other soothing goods to patients as they began their frightening and uncertain journey through cancer treatments.
Smith called Pepin's mother, Sue, a teacher at Margaret Chase Elementary School in Sanford, and asked for permission to nominate Sydney. Sue Pepin gave it — and followed up a few weeks later with a phone call to Smith, informing her that Sydney had won the award.
"It worked!" Smith said of her efforts to have Sydney recognized.
Smith had never met Sydney before, but the girl's generosity connected with her. Smith's brother-in-law and sister-in-law both have cancer and are currently undergoing treatment. Her brother-in-law, in fact, is undergoing treatment at the Sanford cancer center. Reading the Sanford News story, Smith could see that Sydney had "put her heart right into" the gift bag project.
On Oct. 28, Sydney attended the circus in Portland. She took the stage at one point, in full view of a center packed with families, and a clown announced her and four other young recipients of the Barnum Award. The clown — who had orange hair and big feet, Sydney said — gave the audience in the civic center a brief summary of Sydney's project. He then placed a medal around her neck.
How did it feel to be recognized?
"It feels really good," Sydney said.
But here's what has her really excited about the award — it came with a prize of $750 that must be used for her project. The amount, Sydney said, is enough for her to purchase and fill at least a dozen more gift bags for cancer patients.
Sure enough, Sue Pepin said she and Sydney recently handed out more bags to patients on one particular day when surely they needed all the encouragement they could get as they began their treatment — the day before Thanksgiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment