Grace under pressure

A 3-year-old girl is teaching middle-school students — and teachers — what’s important in life.

It’s a sad, yet uplifting lesson.

David Kriegshauser learned his young daughter, Grace, had leukemia a few days before starting his new teaching job at Emerson-Edison Junior Academy.

Grace faces more than two years of weekly chemotherapy treatments for acute lymphocytic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood cancer.

Eighth-grade students at this Colorado Springs School District 11 charter school serving low-income families put their own needs aside to launch a “Pennies for Grace” drive with coin jars and banners.

Michelle McGuire, 13, poured her life’s savings of pennies into the big jar in her classroom. Classmate Dillon Estes, 13, offered up his stash of 300 pennies. “It’s a noble cause,” he said.

Neither student had met Kriegshauser, who moved here from Tucson, Ariz., in late July to teach sixth-grade science.

“A lot of students have come up to me with a dime or a nickel and said, ‘I’ve brought in some money for Grace,’” he said.

Whatever money raised is for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a nonprofit organization that helps families such as his, he said. His medical insurance covers the treatment, but not supplies, travel or other expenses.

On a recent visit to language arts teacher Clare Vaz’s room of eighth-graders, the 31-year-old father spoke candidly about his daughter.

“Excuse my language, she is going through hell,” he said.

He had the students’ full attention.

“They give poison to my little daughter to poison those cancer cells. We have to kill every single cancer cell in her blood or else they will start making more cancer cells,” he said.

“The ironic thing about her treatment is the medicine that is going to make her well first has to make her extremely sick.”

It doesn’t dishearten Grace, who is too weak to climb stairs or walk.

“She’s a very sick little girl,” her dad said, “but she’s got that child spirit. She’s happy about life.”

She plays. She laughs. She’s filled with curiosity.

“She takes pictures of everything; she’s a little photographer. All of her pictures are from about 3 feet tall, so they’re all looking up at stuff. It reminds me of my childhood,” he said. “The big lesson she is teaching me is how to really love life.”

In addition to the penny jars placed in classrooms last week, teacher Cory Houghton is running a Phoenix marathon in January on Grace’s behalf with hopes to raise $3,800. Pennies and pledges so far amount to about $2,200.

“I lost my sister to leukemia,” Houghton said.

Kriegshauser said the odds are good for Grace.

“Thirty years ago only half of the children lived. Now, it’s nine out of 10. Her chances of living to be a grandmother are really good,” he said. “She is going to come out of it.”

She was diagnosed the week he and his wife, Heather, moved into their Woodland Park home with Grace and their 9-month-old son, Jacob.

“She had a fever that wouldn’t go away. We treated it like the flu for a while,” Kriegshauser said. “They drew blood; it looked crazy. . . . My daughter had a disease that could kill her.”

It was hard for her parents to accept, much less explain to a 3-year-old.

“We said, ‘We’re going to give you lots of medicine and you’re going to be better. So hang in there. Trust us,’” he said. “Then about a week later the cat died. We said the cat was too old, so she didn’t associate sick with dead. She associated old with dead.”

Kriegshauser is moved by the school’s support.

“The 400 students and all the teachers and people who work here are all thinking of little Grace,” he said.

Vaz said most students qualify for free or reduced meals, yet give generously.

It’s not just about the money, though.

“It is very sad to me that a little kid can go through that many problems,” eighth-grader Joseph Bacon said. “I learned that my problems are not as big as hers, so I shouldn’t worry as much. She’s my inspiration.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0253 or andrea.brown@gazette.com

DETAILS

To donate to “Pennies for Grace,” contact Emerson-Edison Junior Academy, 4220 E. Pikes Peak Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80909. Phone: 570-7822 c On the Web: http://www.active. com/donate/tntrm/tntrm CHought1