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Hunter's Helper
Kelcie Bailey could easily be called the little girl with the great big heart.
And for good reason.
The 12-year-old Fort Scott Middle School student is currently organizing a benefit spaghetti feed this Saturday at Buck Run Community Center for Hunter Hawley, a fellow sixth grader at Fort Scott Middle School, who has been battling cancer.
Kelcie's family received good news last week, when it was announced in an e-mail to the family that Hunter is cancer-free and for now will not need a bone marrow transplant, the original motivation for Kelcie organizing the event. But Kelcie and her mother, Malinda Bailey quickly realized that his past medical bills do not stop with the arrival of good news, so Kelcie said she wanted to continue with the spaghetti feed.
It's a big undertaking for the petite girl, but Bailey's commitment to service has become a bit contagious as a small army of friends, teachers and fellow 4-Hers have caught the giving bug and are donating their time and cooking talents on Saturday to make the event a success.
"The Pawnee 4-H Club Cooking Project will be making desserts," Kelcie said.
Malinda said more than a dozen of the 4-Hers will be donating their time and cooking talents for the cause.
Kelcie will also be aided by her two friends, Madison Batchelor and Gabbie Clements, who will be serving drinks.
Kelcie also has enlisted the help of her former teachers, Tami Lawrence and Diana Cavin and her grandmother, Gail Bailey.
She also has family members from as far as Kansas City, Mo. and Chanute coming to help.
Malinda said her daughter has told her that she can't imagine how hard it must be to not be able to go to school and do things your other friends are doing.
"She's seen how much school he has had to miss," Malinda said. "I don't know how many times she has come home from school and said 'Mommy, he's here today, but he had to go home at lunch,' We've had a lot of talks about how hard it must be for Hunter."
Kelcie, who has known Hunter since they were in preschool together, decided to go with the idea of a spaghetti dinner to help her classmate because it was "something they could make a lot of."
And they will need a lot.
Kelcie's crew plans on making enough to feed about 300 people on Saturday. Malinda said an event of that proportion would not have been possible without the help of The Sharing Bucket, a local organization that provides support to local cancer patients and their families.
"We called LaVetta Simmons at The Sharing Bucket - she is just so wonderful," Malinda said. "She said tell us what you need and I will send it out to 400 people on my email chain."
Malinda said that very same night an amazing array of donations started pouring in, from spaghetti, to sauce, to seasonings, ground beef and more.
"It just started rolling in," Malinda said. "We just sat there and stared at the emails pouring in, we were so overwhelmed. It would have been so difficult to make this work had it not been for LaVetta's Care to Share team."
She said that Woods Supermarket and Walmart also donated $50 each to the event, in addition to a $50 donation from a "Sharing Angel." Buck Run also donated use of the facilities.
Kelcie said her friend Hunter, who is back in classes, plans to attend the event on Saturday.
The dinner kicks off at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Buck Run and will continue until 2 p.m. Bailey and her helpers will be serving a full dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, Texas toast, a dessert buffet and drink, all for a free will donation.
Kelcie isn't likely to stop her service efforts anytime soon, either.
She already plans to lobby administration at the school to organize a "Hats for Hunter Day" in which students may wear a hat at school all day for a $1 donation.
"With all our kids, we've tried so hard to build a spirit of citizenship," Malinda said. "I want them to have that in their hearts, that wanting to help others and the drive to do it."