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Serena's dream
Cancer patient cheers at Chopticon football game
Friday, Oct. 23, 2009
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Give me a "D"
Shout the word red and then shout the word black. Shout the two words one more time in a precise rhythm, clap three times and repeat the entire process two more times. The ‘Red and Black' cheer belongs to the Chopticon Braves cheerleading team and doubles as the favorite cheer of 12-year-old Serena Wade.
Wade stood on the track alongside the full squad of cheerleaders during a Chopticon football game on Sept. 12 when it hosted Gwynn Park. She cheered in full uniform including the black skirt, the white, red, and black top with "Braves" across the chest, a red hair band, and her own personal set of pom-poms. It was Serena's dream come true.
"It was really fun," Wade said of her experience. "…I have been down there [on the track] but I have never cheered, so it was my first time cheering and, at first, I was kind of nervous.
"…I just like cheering and everything about it. I really like cheering for Chopticon because I am going to go there soon."
For Wade's mother, Lynn Espinoza, seeing Serena on the track was emotional.
"I was overwhelmed with happiness, and I did have some tears," Espinoza said. "It was a very proud, proud moment. I couldn't believe that these young ladies at Chopticon did such a wonderful thing for my little girl."
Give me an "R"
For Wade, a Mechanicsville resident, the vibrant dream of cheering for Chopticon dimmed a bit when it was discovered that she had a rare bone cancer.
What started with a pain in Wade's right hip, it was later discovered on Aug. 14 at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., that it was a rare bone cancer –– Ewing's sarcoma.
According to www.
webmd.com, Ewing's sarcoma is a primary bone cancer that originates in bone cells and forms tumors either in the bone cells around the bone or in the actual bone itself. Ewing tumors that grow in the bone usually occur in the longer bones in the arms and legs, or in the chest, pelvis, back or head.
"It was very hard," Espinoza said of the initial reaction to the diagnosis. "It is something that you never imagine being in your family, with your child."
With the diagnosis, life has changed for Wade. The young energetic girl went from public schooling to home schooling in order to be monitored and cared for at a moment's notice. The lifestyle adjustment has taken some getting used to, however.
"It changed her," Espinoza admitted about her daughter. "She was a very athletic preteen. She played soccer for the Northern Soccer League and had been doing that for six years. She was very active and constantly on the go. She was never at home."
Give me an "E"
Excitement came over the 12-year-old when she received a phone call from Chopticon athletic director Ray Sapp that would indeed help get Wade out of the house for one special day.
Sapp found himself, and the cheerleading team, in a minor dilemma –– of sorts –– for the football game against Gwynn Park.
After receiving an e-mail from head cheerleading coach Dianne White explaining the special circumstances, Sapp went through all of the proper channels to ensure Wade, in fact, received her opportunity to cheer with the Braves.
"I called Serena and I asked her mother was she there?," Sapp said. "She said, ‘Yeah,' and I said, ‘Well, let me speak with her.' I asked [Serena] was she interested in cheering for us because I was a little short this week? … We got her a uniform and she enjoyed the day, and that's all that mattered.
"No matter what we had to do to get it done, it was going to get done."
And Wade enjoyed getting that phone call as it, quite possibly, was one of the more memorable phone calls she had had in quite some time.
"She was excited and quite tickled," Espinoza said as she took note of her daughter on the phone.
Give me an "A"
Perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle in granting Wade her dream was current Chopticon cheerleader Amanda Williams. Williams first met Wade approximately 1 1/2 years ago through Serena's brother, Wayne, and instantly the two connected and formed a sisterly bond.
"We met because I am dating her brother," Amanda Williams said, "and he works a lot. So, I end up spending a lot of time with her and it is more like a big-sister, little-sister type of thing. … I think she is a cute little girl. She was always there if I had a problem. She would just hug me and she is just a great girl."
"She is really my big sister," Wade said of Amanda. "She is awesome."
Williams was with the family on the day that Wade was diagnosed with the cancer and has been by her side ever since.
"At first I could not believe it," Williams said. "…It was a surreal thing. I think we are closer now because she doesn't go to school, and I am over there all of the time, so I hang out with her a lot."
Through the time spent together and continuous conversation, Williams eventually found out that Wade wanted to be a cheerleader and immediately Williams was in front of White and the rest of the team explaining the situation. Thus, the plan was set in motion to get Wade on the track and with the team.
"When Amanda first approached me, she wanted to do something special, maybe a team T-shirt," White said. "I told her that we would bring it to the girls and see if they had suggestions or ideas. … It kind of just grew to what it ended up being."
Wade was clearly ecstatic with the fact that she would be with the cheerleader and with her big sister.
"She told all of the nurses at Children's Hospital what she would be doing," Espinoza said. "That is all that she could talk about was cheerleading with her big sister's cheerleading team. … That is literally all that she talked about, was the fact that she got to cheer."
For White and many members of her current cheerleading squad, however, this was the second chance that an illness hit close to home.
Five years ago to the week that Wade cheered, White lost a young male cheerleader to Leukemia, and the emotions were stirred in her and within the members that were a part of that team five years ago.
"The girls really embraced Serena," White said, "and could really identify with what Serena and her family were going through because they had gone through it before."
Give me an "M"
Many people made this dream come through for Serena and despite only cheering three of the four quarters due to fatigue, the dream was captured for the young girl.
"I am so grateful and so thankful to the wonderful girls and the coach and Mr. Sapp and everyone," Espinoza said. "I am so thankful that there is such community support out there, because I don't know if she would have ever been able to [cheer]. … They really made her dream come true. This is something that I will never forget."
The uniform that Wade wore on that Saturday now hangs up in her room, but if things continue to play out well maybe, just maybe, the uniform can come down for an additional use or two.
"I know she had a blast," Williams said. "She said it was so much fun and everyone thought it was the best idea because she was so happy that day. … I really loved seeing her out there."
White added on the experience: "I was very proud that I was able to help Serena fulfill a dream that she had. I was proud of my girls, as well, because they really took to her. … It showed me that not only are my girls learning the fundamentals of cheering, but they are learning how to be caring adults."
As of press time, Serena has completed five chemotherapy sessions and will also have radiation sessions, as well as a bone marrow biopsy due to the fact that the cancer has been found in her bone marrow.
However, according to Espinoza, doctors are hopeful that by April 2010 Wade can be back in school.
According to www.webmd.com, Ewing's sarcoma accounts for only one percent of all childhood cancer which amounts to 200 people per year in the United States.
The key to such a cancer, according to Espinoza, is catching it early, which she hopes her and the doctors have done.
Fans and supporters alike will have an opportunity to catch a glimpse of Wade as she will be cheering again tonight as Chopticon hosts Great Mills at 7.
