Students' 5K to fund room makeover for recovering Hanover Park girl
Makayla Nemcik leans against her mom and tunes out her frustrating world.
Her mom starts to talk about Makayla's cancer diagnosis at 7 years old, how she lost her brown hair and her confidence.
"Unfortunately, she was very outgoing until all of this," Carol Nemcik says. "And she's kind of gotten ..."
Her voice trails off. An oblivious Makayla suddenly shows a reporter pictures of giraffes on her tablet.
Her parents can't explain why she loves them. Maybe it's because of a toy giraffe she had as a baby. But her mom and dad do know that giraffe prints will soon decorate the 9-year-old's new bedroom.
Special Spaces Chicagoland will complete the $3,000 bedroom project, thanks to donations raised by Glenbard North High School students and their teacher. The Carol Stream campus will host the last of the fundraisers - a new 5K run and walk - on Sunday.
The renovations will finally remove the Care Bears on the walls that Makayla outgrew long ago. And her mom hopes she'll see something else in Makalya after the makeover.
"Just the wow factor," Carol Nemcik said. "The smile on her face again."
'Hell and back again'
Two years ago, Makayla was feeling dizzy and nauseous. Doctors ruled out earaches and strep throat.
The family then feared a concussion after the Hanover Park girl later told her mom she fell playing with her sisters in the snow.
But a trip to an urgent care clinic and a CT scan revealed a mass.
"It's like, 'Wait a minute,'" Carol Nemcik said. "I took her in for a concussion."
The family had little time to process her diagnosis: stage four medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
As soon as the swelling subsided, Makayla was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the tumor on her cerebellum. What followed was a regimen of chemotherapy and radiation grueling for anyone, let alone a 7-year-old.
"As my mom puts it, she's just been through hell and back again," Carol Nemcik said.
Makayla dropped to 45 pounds at one point. Infections and other complications often sent her to the hospital.
"You can't do anything but sit there and comfort her," her mom said.
But Makayla has always been a fighter. Before the diagnosis, she had been training at Superstar Karate in Carol Stream since she was 3 and was one belt away from learning everything she needed to know to test for her black belt, said her dad, Michael Nemcik.
"Her strength became our strength," her mom said.
'Helping kids'
Laura Wilkens' children go to Makayla's school, Hawk Hollow Elementary in Bartlett. They knew the "pre-cancer" Makayla, the social butterfly.
Wilkens, a Glenbard North teacher, and students she advises in the school's Family, Career and Community Leaders of America club knew they wanted to do something "healing" for Makayla and her family.
Last spring, they heard about other area teens raising money for Special Spaces, a nonprofit group that relies on designers, muralists and seamstresses to transform bedrooms for kids facing life-threatening illnesses.
Wilkens normally would have hesitated. She knew it would be a "huge commitment" for students to raise donations.
"And end of senior year, most people are worried about what shoes are going to go with their dress for prom," she said.
But Bridgette Carbon and Tiffany Flanagan, two friends since middle school and leaders of the Glenbard North club, are "very determined young women," Flanagan's mom says.
So determined, in fact, that they've been recruiting their peers and businesses to donate throughout this school year. The 5K will be their final push to reimburse Special Spaces (the nonprofit provides the renovations upfront).
What's more, Carbon, Flanagan and Wilkens will work on Makayla's dream bedroom, a daylong project tentatively set for June.
Carbon knows exactly what that means for a sick kid. Her 10-year-old cousin died four years ago from brain cancer. His last few months were confined to his bedroom at home.
"I just love helping kids, and I want to help them get better and make them feel better about themselves," said Carbon, who wants to become a pediatric nurse.
A blessing
Makayla has been feeling better since she went off chemo last August and her cancer went into remission on Christmas Eve.
Those should be reassuring milestones, but her parents are cautious. Doctors continue to closely monitor a spot, unclear if it's only scarring tissue. Makayla now has an MRI every eight weeks.
"There's still that spot you keep in the back of your mind," Carol Nemcik said.
Makayla's hair has started growing back around the lingering bald patches. And she imagines the day she's old enough to drive "her" RV. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her request for the camper but wondered why she didn't want, for instance, a trip to Disney.
"That's a one-time memory, where you can make lots of memories going with family in the camper," her dad remembers Makayla telling Make-A-Wish.
For now, she just wants to go to school with no interruptions, no sick days. Even in the hospital, she asked her tutor for assignments.
"It's fun for me," Makayla says quietly.
Besides the facelift for the bedroom Makayla shares with her sister, Special Spaces also will refurbish her older sister's room.
Makayla asked Special Spaces for only two things: a window seat and a desk where she can do her school work.
"It's a blessing," her mom said.
If you go
What: FCCLA Run4Red 5K Run/Walk and a 1-mile “FunRun” for kids 12 and younger
When: Check-in at 8:30 a.m. Sunday
Where: Glenbard North High School, 990 Kuhn Road, Carol Stream
Why: Proceeds will support a bedroom makeover for a Hanover Park girl who’s been battling brain cancer
Cost: $20 before Friday, $25 on Sunday, $10 for kids 12 and younger
Register: Glenbardnorthhs.org