December 16, 2009

(Special thanks to the Green Bay Press Gazette for permission to reproduce this article)

Students' stories, Sting Cancer club help educate about disease

By Kelly McBride
kmcbride@greenbaypressgazette.com

For Marissa Christensen, it was a cancer scare during her sophomore year of high school. Jennifer Rabas watched three family members fight the disease, while Mia Sundstrom's mom succumbed to it last spring.

For each student in Green Bay Preble High School's Sting Cancer club - named for the school's mascot, the hornet - there's a story.

Those stories took the club from its 14 original members a few years ago to hundreds today, transforming it from after-school activity to communitywide organization.

And it's those stories that have club founder and cancer survivor Nick Nesvacil thinking big about Sting Cancer, and how far his inspired team of students might take it.

"I really believe, without a doubt, that in 5 to 10 years from now, I think it'll be in every middle school and high school in the United States," said Nesvacil, a Preble teacher, "which really is a neat thing, because I think it kind of educates the heart along with the mind, something that you can't always do in the classroom."

Preble's club is looking to "sting it forward" to other area schools, helping them set up clubs with advice, leadership sessions and seed money. The idea is that those schools will help start the club at other schools, hopefully spurring exponential growth.

Half a dozen area schools already have used seed money to start their own Sting Cancer clubs, and plans for more are in the works.

Preble's club helps people with cancer through donations, volunteerism and other means, in addition to raising awareness about cancer prevention and related health issues.

"It's important, just because so many people are affected by cancer," said Rabas, a Preble senior. "We want to show that teenagers get a bad rap, because everyone looks at us as being - like we're too selfish to care. But we really do, and when we see someone that needs our help, they need to know that we're there for them."

Ashwaubenon High School recently started its own Sting Cancer club, said teacher and cancer survivor Kathy Donarski. The organization has plenty of ideas, and members hope to work with other Sting Cancer groups to raise money and awareness.

"I don't think there's one student in any school who's not somehow affected by cancer," Donarski said. "… I think when you have cancer, you feel so victimized. You want to help and do something, and yet you can't - so this is one way for students to say and do and demonstrate (that) we can make that journey with cancer better."

Nesvacil plans to set up Sting Cancer leadership conferences this spring, to help accommodate the expansion of clubs at area high schools.

Preble's weekly meetings draw between 100 and 200 students - 320 attended the first meeting this fall - many of whom wear now-trademarked Sting Cancer apparel.

Club members participate in myriad community events and undertake education efforts associated with different types of cancer.

Sting Cancer's signature event, Wear Yellow Day, is in May and has become a community celebration. Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and Brown County Executive Tom Hinz are among the club's supporters.

"It's great to get the youth involved," Schmitt said, "not just as an awareness (effort), but they've actually raked leaves for people, they've supported them … They understand the impact of cancer on all levels, and I just think it's great to engage students in all of that."

Of course, dealing with cancer means dealing with loss. The club has helped people who have died. It's tough to deal with, but club members say it's still worth it.

One of the more personal losses came just after the May 2009 Wear Yellow Day, when Preble teacher and Sting Cancer adviser Deanna Sundstrom died of Lieomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the soft tissues of the body.

Deanna was too weak to make it to school that day, said her daughter, Mia. So the school came to her, with yellow-clad students packing the front yard to give hugs and say goodbye.

Since then, Mia has become even more involved in Sting Cancer, heading up its Helping Hands committee as her mother once did. The Preble junior is optimistic for the future of Sting Cancer, both locally and nationwide.

"When you hear the stories of the things that we do actually affecting people," she said, "it really gives you a heart for service, and helping others."