Dundee-Crown rallies around family of sick Carpentersville girl
After two years of chemotherapy, the Diaz family thought 6-year-old Cindy's leukemia was gone.
"She was fine with the treatment. No more medicines at all," said Maria Torres, Cindy Diaz' mother. "The doctors said everything is OK."
But when Cindy went in for a checkup in February, the doctors gave her mother troubling news: Cindy's leukemia had come back.
"It was really, really hard," Torres said.
While the Diaz family was dealing with the diagnosis, students at Dundee-Crown High School were working to help families like the Diazes.
This year, the Carpentersville high school's Beta Club, a service group, formed a committee called Students Assisting Family Emergencies, or SAFE.
The new committee asked the school's counselors to alert them of Dundee-Crown families who were dealing with crises. The students learned about Cindy, whose has two sisters, Thanya and Genesis, who attend Dundee-Crown.
SAFE initially gave the Diaz family $100 to help with Cindy's medical expenses. Then, students from the committee sat down with Cindy's sisters.
They heard how Genesis, a junior, took a break from school to work while her mother stayed at the hospital with Cindy. They also heard how Thanya, a sophomore, was going to donate her bone marrow to Cindy.
"I personally was moved to tears, as (were) the rest of us in the room," said Kaitlin Wright, a Dundee-Crown junior and SAFE member. "The decision was made that we had to do more for this family."
On Saturday, students from Beta Club are hosting "A Community Cares," a fundraiser for the Diaz family and other families dealing with crises.
The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Dundee-Crown parking lot. It features a garage sale in which community members can sell used belongings or crafts, games, raffles, a silent auction, muscle cars and live music.
"Our biggest goal is to show a community can come together and help out a family and show people that we care," Wright said.
As for Cindy, she has been receiving chemotherapy on a weekly basis at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. She was attending Parkview Elementary School, but her treatment interrupted her schooling.
"Every single day, I come to the hospital to see her," Torres said. "She is sleeping the whole day. She had a high fever, she's throwing up because of the chemo."
Torres said her daughter, who turned 7 last week, is handling everything well - considering the pain she experiences and the side effects of the treatment.
Cindy's family hopes that after the bone marrow transplant, set for later this month at a children's hospital in Milwaukee, Cindy will beat leukemia for good.
Torres said she is grateful her daughter's classmates recognized the family's struggle.
"I just can say thank you for helping me, and thank you for taking care of all the families," Torres said.