Class Donates Pillowcases for Cancer Victims

Tue, 29 May 2007 12:30:00 GMT

By Connor Kelly '09

Cindy Kerr addresses the sewing class.

Ryan Kerr was a normal teenage boy until one day he fell off his bike. He thought nothing of it until, while doctors fixed his knee up, they discovered that Ryan had a tumor. He had bone cancer at the age of 16. Since then he’s been in and out of treatments and his leg was amputated. His mother, Cindy Kerr, would visit him in the bland hospital rooms and try to think of some way to brighten the atmosphere. Eventually she started making her son colorful pillow cases to make the room warmer. For each visit, she would make him a new pillowcase. The hospital thought the idea was great and asked if she would donate some pillow cases to the hospital. Since then the idea has spread to eight hospitals in Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Children from ages 2 to 19 with cancer and other life threatening illnesses receive the pillowcases. Sometimes the organization visits the children at the hospitals so that they themselves can make a pillowcase. Cindy Kerr visited the high school to talk to the sewing class, taught by Mrs. Mary Matcovich, about the organization, ConKerr Cancer, and to tell the story of her son, Ryan Kerr. Students in the high school sewing class have made pillow cases for this organization. Cindy Kerr said, “It only takes one person to start an organization like this and everyone’s help counts.”

Tribal Tribune

Class Donates Pillowcases for Cancer Victims