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ROTTERDAM
Students’ pennies, dimes add up to ease hospital stay for children
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.

    The loose change of Jefferson Elementary School students and teachers will help change the lives of patients at the Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center.
    The Schalmont district school collected pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to purchase a Starlight Mobile Entertainment Fun Center, a type of mobile cart with television and Wii video game console.
    Students from each class put coins in their respective large jar on a table set up at the main entrance of the school.
    The drive was spearheaded by kindergarten teacher Erika Minehardt-Quick, whose 11-year-old daughter, Emily, is battling Langerhans cell histiocytosis, where the body produces too many white blood cells, a condition that can lead to tumors or damaged organs.
    The school raised about $4,800 in just a couple of weeks, according to Minehardt-Quick. It needed $4,500 to buy one of the machines.
    “I am amazed at the level of compassion these kids here at Jefferson demonstrated,” she said.
    The time that Emily spent in the hospital prompted Minehardt-Quick to organize the drive to purchase one of the units to entertain the children and ease their anxiety. Minehardt-Quick said one of these devices really helped her daughter when she was going through chemotherapy.
    “It was nice to see her smile because she was so scared,” she said.
    “It helped me take my mind off of what was going on,” said Emily, who was in the hospital for about a week and a half.
    Minehardt-Quick decided to make it a competition among all the grades at the 600-student school. The goal was to fill their own jar with pennies and dump nickels, dimes and quarters into the other grades’ jars. According to the competition rules, the value of the “silver” coins would be deducted from the total value of the pennies in the jar. For example, if the jar had 50 pennies and someone put in a quarter, then the value of the jar would be reduced to 25 cents. .............................>>>>..................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01200&AppName=1

You can always count on the kids..... innocence and compassion for each other at elementary age...

I am very proud of the kids, and so is the Quick family.  I spoke to them this past week, and they were just so appreciative of all the kids at the school for how they came through for this.  This should make it just a little easier on the families that are served by the people at Albany Med.  A little piece of home, or at least a break from the everyday "hospital scene" for the children / families.