Last week, proud parents gathered in a classroom at Fairview PK-8 to celebrate the accomplishments of their entrepreneurial students. For the second year in a row, the Nibblin’ Dragons snack cart raised $1500 to donate to the CU Cancer Center at Anschutz.

 

Teachers Rochelle White and Emily Jennings created the Nibblin’ Dragons snack cart program to help students with special needs learn to interact with their peers, take orders, make correct change, and keep inventory. Now, it is the students who are helping others to battle a deadly cancer with the money they raise.

 

Is $1,500 enough money to make much of an impact?

 

“Yes,” says Philanthropic Advisor for CU Anschutz Melissa Staten. Staten explains that larger federal grants that fund cancer research cannot be applied for until the research is far enough along to indicate promising results. For researchers to get to that point, smaller donations like these from Fairview provide money for research assistants or needed materials in the lab.

 

Brain Cancer research is a topic that hits close to home for the Fairview community- office assistant Laurie Boddy’s husband Jason Boddy died in 2021 after a years-long battle with Glioblastoma. Principal Lisa Cyr, says the school’s hope is to continue donating to the same cause year after year so that over 20 years they will have contributed some $30,000.

 

What began as an experiment to help students with special needs learn more about math and socialization has grown into a source of pride for the whole school.