Ballard Elementary in Bradenton donates Pirates hats for kids with cancer to honor former student
BRADENTON -- Messages of "get well soon," "feel better" and "don't let cancer beat you" will soon be affixed to Pittsburgh Pirates caps sent to children with cancer in honor of a former Ballard Elementary School student.
Teodoro "Tito" Valerio lost his fight with cancer over the summer, after finishing fifth grade at Ballard. A plaque and a bench now sit outside the front office in his memory. The plaque includes a poem, written by Tito.
"I'm a stander upper
Nothing can keep me down
I'm not a quitter
Nothing can stop me
NOTHING"
In honor of Tito, the teachers and staff have spent a
month raising money and celebrating Tito's life. They held two themed days, one where students could wear a "crazy" hat if they donated $1 and another where students could wear superhero T-shirts if they donated $1.
"Tito was a big Spiderman fan," principal Wendy Mungillo said. "All of our proceeds are in his honor."
The two events helped raise $450, but staff wanted to do more.
Partnering with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Bradenton Marauders, students and staff are donating new Pirates hats to Hats Off for Cancer, a nonprofit that provides hats to students who have lost their hair as they undergo cancer treatment.
On Tuesday, Marty the Marauder made a special trip to the school to deliver the hats and to visit with the children as they wrote their messages. The donations are being made in Tito's memory, and each of the 500 hats will have a message from a Ballard student attached to it.
"If they're bald and they go to school, they don't want to be laughed at," said Annah Youngwirth, an 8-year-old in third grade at Ballard, as she added a big exclamation mark to the end of her get-well-soon message.
On her message, Sha'Kayla White, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, wrote "get well soon. you can do it."
"They need to fight through it," she said. "We should help."
Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.
This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 11:53 PM with the headline "Ballard Elementary in Bradenton donates Pirates hats for kids with cancer to honor former student ."