When Caledonia Middle School Principal Karen Pittman announced over the intercom one day in August the students’ behavior was “out of control” and that the entire school had to go to an assembly in the gym, Kim Holley didn’t know what to think.
Holley, who began teaching eighth grade English at CMS last year, was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer over the summer and had been missing school for treatment in Birmingham, Alabama. As she and her students headed to the gym, she assumed her absences were the reason she didn’t know anything about the students’ “bad behavior.”
At the assembly Pittman began speaking about teamwork. She told the students that day was “Team Holley Day.”
That moment, two eighth grade football players approached Holley and walked her up to the front of the room where she received flowers and a check for more than $1,700, which the school had raised by selling breast cancer awareness T-shirts without ever telling Holley the proceeds were for her.
“I had no idea,” Holley said. “I squalled like a baby.”
Each Wednesday, many students, faculty and staff still wear their T-shirts for Holley. This Wednesday, fellow eighth grade teachers also presented her with $7,000 they raised last weekend in a chicken and barbeque plate sale.
Kelly Hollowell, an eighth grade math teacher, said she and about 24 other teachers came in shifts over the weekend to do the lunch with area churches. They began assembling plates and plastic ware on Saturday. Cooking began at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. By 11 a.m., they were delivering plates.
And of course the students have been supportive, Hollowell said.
“I think a lot of times we underestimate kids and their compassion, and this group of eighth graders has just really outdone themselves with compassion and caring and the love and support that they’ve shown for Ms. Holley,” she said.
A surprise diagnosis
Holley was diagnosed with breast cancer at a routine mammogram on June 28. Unlike the other stages of breast cancer, which have about a 75 percent chance survival rate, Stage 4 is chronic.
Holley said she was shell-shocked. She had always done her screenings and monthly exams, in addition to eating healthy food and exercising. She had never expected anything like this to happen to her.
“I’m absolutely terrified,” she said. “I’m a single mom of three. [My first reaction was] fear.”
She said CMS and the whole Caledonia community have come to her aid in numerous ways since the school year began.
Her students have cried with her, while grandmothers have made her head scarves and other supporters have gotten her presents or paid her light bills. One person she had never met paid for her gas at a convenience store the other day, she said.
Carl Hogan Automotive in Columbus also launched a Facebook campaign promising to donate a dollar to Holley for every like, share or comment up to $1,000. The post had more than 5,000 interactions from people all over the country by the time the campaign finished, Holley said.
“They have rallied behind me and the support has been unbelievable,” Holley said.
‘They’ve got my back’
But this spirit of giving is all part of the culture of CMS, said Hollowell, who received her share of support when she was out of class last year for severe back surgery.
“When one of us is down, we all rally around,” she said.
“A lot of that is due to leadership,” she added. “Ms. Pittman and Ms. [Assistant Principal Jeannie] Jernigan … foster that behavior. … It’s more than a job. I don’t think anyone here comes just to work. We come to be with part of our family.”
Holley is overwhelmingly grateful to be part of a community so supportive of her, she said.
“I feel so blessed to be here,” she said. “I don’t think I would have survived anywhere else. They’ve got my back.”
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