Hillside Students Share "Courage for Kylie"

Students, faculty and staff at Hillside Intermediate School are wearing their support for a Naugatuck second grader diagnosed with cancer, thanks to two Hillside students who combined fundraising and fashion for a good cause.

Olivia Zembruski and Emma Brackett, both fifth graders at Hillside, spent a week’s worth of breakfast and lunch periods selling gold rubber bracelets that read “Courage for Kylie.” The money obtained through the sales then goes to fund treatment for Kylie Simonds, as well as raise awareness for childhood cancer and to show their support for their friend.

Kylie is in second grade at Hop Brook School in Naugatuck. She plays soccer, she is a girl scout and, in March, she was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. She has undergone surgery, chemotherapy and radiation as part of her treatment.

Olivia’s brothers go to school at Hop Brook and her parents are the co-presidents of the Hop Brook PSA. When the Hop Brook PSA ordered the “Courage for Kylie” bracelets to raise funds and awareness there at her school, Olivia and Emma wanted to extend the fundraiser to Hillside.

“The came in the very next morning,” said Hillside Principal Johnna Hunt. “I encouraged them to do it. They came up with the whole plan.”

Hunt says the girls made a poster with photos of Kylie, informative websites and pricing details and hung it at the school. They went around the classrooms and sold the bracelets during lunch and breakfast periods.

They sold the bracelets for donations of at least $2, but they said that many people paid more. The teachers generally donated $5, they said.

“Some days we had zero, some days we had 2 – it was all different,” Emma said. The best day, Emma said, was when someone came up to their booth with a $20 bill, to purchase 5 bracelets.

“We made an announcement or two,” Hunt said, “but the rest of it was all them. I think its so much more meaningful hen the kids do it.”

The fact that they’ve never been involved with something like this before makes their efforts all the more impressive.

"The closest thing I’ve done is like a lemonade stand,” Emma said. She admits she was ”a little shaky” about meeting their $250 goal when they first began selling but is glad that they had, at last count, raised around $270.

Olivia was proud to interject that they had just found an envelope with an additional $79 dollars, putting them around $340, nearly $100 over their original goal.

The girls will personally deliver the funds they raised to Kylie’s home, and are hoping to do so this weekend or next weekend. They said that they want to make a giant check to present her with, along with the money.

When they present Kylie with the money, and perhaps the giant check, they will also be giving her a bandana they made, signed by each of the teachers at Hillside Middle School. Because Hop Brook is the “feeder school” for Hillside, Kylie will someday learn from all the teachers who signed the bandana for her.

“She’ll already have a connection,” said Hunt.

In addition to the bracelet fundraiser, "Courage for Kylie Fun Day” will be held on the Naugatuck Green on June 26. The event will go from Noon to 5 p.m. and there will be games, raffles, prizes, concessions, a DJ and more. All donations and funds raised will go to the Kylie Benefit fund.

If you would like to learn more about Kylie, her family or the various fundraisers where you can donate, go to www.courageforkylie.com.