The school cafeteria at Centaurus High School more closely resembled a Build-A-Bear workshop than a high school lunchroom. Instead of sitting around plastic trays and lunchboxes, students crowded around tables piled high with trash bags filled with stuffing and hand-sewn, heart-shaped pillows.
In less than 40 minutes, the seniors at Centaurus, a public high school in Lafayette, had stuffed more than 400 pillows. The effort will support the work of JWILL Pink Village, a Superior-based nonprofit that makes pillows for breast cancer patients.
Jen Willard founded the organization seven years ago shortly after she became cancer-free. She received a similar hand-made pillow after her double mastectomy and inspiration struck.
“I never started out thinking I'm going to find a cure,” Willard said. “I wanted to start something that others could take part in where they could directly see the impact they're making. They could physically feel it because I felt it. I felt that love and kindness from someone I will never meet, but yet they knew what I needed in one of the most vulnerable times in my life.”
The pillows specifically help patients after mastectomy surgery by strapping them into seatbelts in order to prevent the belt from touching their chest. And students of Centaurus High School said they felt that joy in not just making the pillows, but in knowing that they will be going to someone in their community.
“Making a pillow is such a tiny little act, but seeing those people be here and be part of it is really, really cool,” Mica Reed, a senior at Centaurus, said.
Thursday was the second time the school hosted the pillow-making event. According to Christine Ferguson, a math teacher and the main organizer, the day was initially intended as a way for seniors to get community service hours, a requirement for many college applications. But it evolved into a way for them to connect with their neighbors.
Many families and mothers of students at the school who were breast cancer survivors or had been recently diagnosed joined the students and faculty at the school on Thursday. Their presence made a big impact on students like Reed, who said she was fortunate enough to not have anyone in her family be diagnosed with breast cancer. But the biggest impact was felt by students whose parents were also breast cancer survivors.
“Today was a really good day to talk about the light side of it, not the dark side of it,” said senior Billy Plampin, whose mom was diagnosed with breast cancer his freshman year of high school. “She got it and she beat it, and then we found out that she had it again, and she had to get a mastectomy to fully get rid of it.”
Plampin, whose mom, Lindsay Plampin, is an administrator at the school, said while most people are aware of his mom’s battle, it can still be hard to talk about. He said Thursday provided the perfect opportunity to start a conversation with his friends about his mom’s story.
“It's kind of cool to come out and talk about it and talk about how good she is,” he said. “Because she's a fighter and she's a survivor and she beat it. It's impressive.”
Austin Bray, another Centaurus senior, was a sophomore when his mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. He said he was happy his mom came to the school Thursday because he not only was able to chat with his friends about what his family went through, but he was able to watch her make friends with other breast cancer survivors.
“I think it's good for her to be here on this day because it normalizes this conversation about cancer,” Bray said. “It can be something that people I think are afraid to talk about because it can be a stressful and personal topic. And it gives her a community of other cancer survivors. There's a lot of other adult women here who've also survived breast cancer. So I think it's good for her to see those people and know that she wasn't the only one.”
