Wauconda boy earns honors for cancer fundraising
Jack Skowronnek is like most other 10-year-old boys, with a flair for local fame thrown in for good measure.
The fourth-grader at Robert Crown Elementary School in Wauconda, who plays baseball after school, has been recognized by the Wauconda Unit District 118 school board, nominated for the local Mayor's Award and featured on WGN radio as the Kid of the Week on the Steve Cochran show.
Pretty heady stuff for the Wauconda boy. And it's all happened since early April when he started raising money for St. Baldrick's Foundation, which provides children's cancer research.
"I was very surprised," Jack said. "I got to go to the (school) board meeting, that surprised me too. Then the secretary at my school nominated me for the mayor's award, so I had no idea that was going to happen."
It all started with the book "Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick, which explores how a family deals with cancer. The book inspired Jack to raise money to fight cancer, and so far he has collected $1,218 for St. Baldrick's through the organization's Internet Web site.
The donations, mainly from friends and family, have included a lot of smaller contributions. However, he also received a single donation of $200 from an anonymous donor.
Jack also shaved his head like the character in the book to let cancer patients know they are not alone in being bald.
"Jack thought that it was symbolic and he could do that as well," said his mom, Dawn Skowronnek.
His efforts have impressed adults throughout the community.
Wauconda village Trustee Pam Wahl, who is also the Crown secretary who nominated Jack for the mayor's award, said she was touched by what he's done.
"He's kind of a shy boy," Wahl said. "So for him to stand out like this, because most of the kids just want to blend, but for him to come into school with a bald head, just based on what he read in a book. I was just blown away by how this affected him."
That a book inspired this kind of reaction came as a wonderful surprise to Robert Crown librarian Carolyn Grede, who is also a fan of "Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie."
"I'm thrilled that he took the actions of that book and translated it to real life," Grede said.
As for Jack, his fundraising days are far from over. He continues to raise money for St. Baldrick's and has begun to design and sell greeting cards online with the proceeds donated to St. Jude. Jack said he is particularly touched and saddened by St. Jude's television commercials, so that is an organization he also likes to support.
"I just hope everybody has a good heart in the world and tries to help everybody with cancer," he said.
Anyone interested in donating to Jack's fundraiser for St. Baldrick's can inquire at stbaldricks.org and search for Jack S of Wauconda.