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| Jennifer Lehmann shows photos of some of the cancer victims she has helped. Photo courtesy of The News-Messenger. |
“When you see these kids ... they’re different and just really inspiring,” Lehmann said as she looked at framed pictures of
the children she has been able to meet along the way.
In April 2006, Lehmann created the Kids Cancer Crusade, a Web site dedicated to children with cancer. The Web site lists the
children’s birthdays as well as updates on their conditions along with listing each child by diagnosis.
The Web site also recognizes the siblings of the children with cancer and other aspects such as special projects and goals
that Lehmann wants to accomplish in order to create awareness about childhood cancers.
So far, there are about 130 kids listed on her Web site. The kids range in age from not even 1-year-old to about 18.
Lehmann said the Web site started out as a simple listing of the kids so parents could contact each other but has grown into
much more.
Last fall, Lehmann began sending out packages of goodies to the children if they were in the hospital for a long stay. However,
she also started sending out packages for birthdays.
Lehmann enrolled at Bowling Green State University last fall. She is majoring in nursing and is hoping to work in pediatric
oncology but it was inspiration from a little girl named Christi Thomas who had an incredible personality that made Lehmann
want to get involved and make a difference.
“You never heard her complain and she lived life to the fullest,” Lehmann said. “She was always known for saying, “I’m not
sick, I just have cancer.”
Lehmann said she had come across Thomas’ Web site and had met her when Thomas was 5. Last September, Thomas of Tiffin passed
away at age nine after battling neuroblastoma, which is a cancer in immature nerve cells.
Lehmann said during the fall of 2005, she had begun collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house in Philadelphia where
Thomas was being treated.
“We spent more time together during my senior year (of high school) and into this past summer (2006),” said Lehmann. “We went
to Cedar Point, we went ice skating and I went to her and her sister’s ballet recital.”
Lehmann’s ultimate goal is for Kids Cancer Crusade to become a non-profit organization.
“Once more kids are added (to the Web site), we’ll need more help and donations,” she said.
To get the process started, Lehmann said she went to the secretary of state’s Web site to have information sent to her on
how to get started as a non-profit organization. But Lehmann isn’t alone in this process because she has help from Kami Sayre,
the mother of the children for whom Lehmann baby sits.
“Right now we’re just trying to figure out exactly what to do,” said Sayre.
Both Lehmann and Sayre are hoping to become a non-profit organization by 2009.
-Leslie Bixler ’06
Excerpted from The (Fremont) News-Messenger, Feb. 19, 2007
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