Community rallies around students fighting cancer
Throughout Vestavia, gold bows dot the landscape, affixed to mailboxes, front doors and street signs — especially near Pizitz Middle School.
The bows are a small sign of solidarity for two smaller members of the Vestavia Hills community who are fighting one of humanity’s largest battles.
Sam Cunningham, sixth grade, and Will Nailen, seventh grade, are both students at Pizitz and are both currently fighting a form of pediatric cancer.
Sam is undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, while Will is being treated for Ewing sarcoma.
The boys were diagnosed in late February and early March.
Jennifer Wolfe’s son has known Sam and the Cunninghams since kindergarten, and when she found out about his diagnosis, she said she was at a loss.
“You just can’t imagine what they’re going through,” she said. “You start thinking, ‘How can I help?’”
In an effort to try to offset some of the expenses incurred during treatment that are not covered by insurance, such as transportation and feeding a family, Wolfe said she and her husband decided to host a car wash at their business, Spellman’s Classic Car Wash, to benefit the family.
The event, which was April 15, grew from a simple way to reach out into a full-blown community rally, with various vendors donating items and time.
Across town in another home, Shelley Faulkner, whose children are good friends with Will and the Nailens, was also trying to think of how to show support.
It was her son Jay who first proposed the idea of a shirt, and her daughter Emma realized with her friends that they could use the shirts to raise funds for Relay for Life.
After word got around about the #WithWill shirts, Shelley Faulkner said her son even came home from school one day with nearly $400 from people who wanted to buy one.
“Every day I usually get a text about somebody who wants a shirt,” she said.
The two teams selling the shirts for Relay have raised about $3,000, she said, and the funds raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society in Will’s honor.
After Relay, she said they hope to continue selling the shirts at cost to still show support.
“It is so reassuring and comforting to know that people just want to support a family that they don’t even know that well,” Faulkner said.
About a week after the #WithWill shirts took off, Vestavia parent Kate Wheeler decided to start an initiative to make gold bows to support both boys.
Faulkner said she is encouraged that Vestavians, even those who may not know Sam or Will, have stepped up to support the families.
Lisa Cunningham, Sam’s mother, said she, her husband Patrick and the rest of Sam’s family have been overwhelmed by the support they have received.
“It is absolutely amazing how they have carried us through this,” she said, expressing her gratitude for the prayers and words of encouragement. “God has a plan for us, and I just can’t express in words how grateful we are to everybody.”