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NE - 4/10/07 - Abigail Dobies, 6, watches as Mark Springer tries on a new she and her sister Paige gave to him on Tuesday morning. Springer, the principal of the Mason Rice Elementary School, was diagnosed with Lymphoma in January and has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment. As a result, Springer changed the rules at the school to allow students to wear hats. (Photo by MARK THOMSON)
Hats ‘on’ at Mason Rice
By Julie Masis/Correspondent
Wed Apr 11, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT
Children at Mason Rice Elementary School have been permitted to wear hats to class since January. That’s because Principal Mark Springer makes the rules.
Springer himself is a proud owner of between two or three-dozen different types of head attire. He was diagnosed with cancer last January and has lost all his hair due to chemotherapy. Still, he says he only missed a few days of work and now feels comfortable coming to school — with or without a hat.
“My cancer was very public because I lost all my hair. There was an awful lot of thought and anxiety about sharing the illness with young children. There was no way to hide that,” he said, adding that he ended up writing a letter to parents about his diagnosis.
Now, he and the children wear hats to school. “The kids love seeing me in the different hats,” he said.
Springer said the support he’s received from Mason Rice Elementary, where he has worked for almost 12 years, and from the community overall, has been overwhelming. So overwhelming, in fact, that in some ways he said living with cancer is “one of the best things” that ever happened to him.
“The notes, the cards, the encouragement, the hugs,” Springer said. “The parents who came to me who I never knew had cancer, cancer survivors.”
Next Monday, the community will once again show its support for Principal Springer when Dr. Howard Weinstein, a Newton resident who is also the chief of pediatric oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, runs the Boston Marathon in his honor.
Weinstein, whose three children attended the Mason Rice Elementary School, will run the Marathon for the 17th year in a row to raise money for the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Pediatric Cancer Program.
Weinstein said this year’s goal for the more than 100 runners on Mass. General Hospital’s team is to raise $1 million. The money will go toward children’s art and music therapists at the hospital who help children with cancer cope with their disease, as well as for a child life specialist, who will help children using play therapy.
On his Web site, www.firstgiving.com/weinstein, Weinstein has already raised $64,491.59, and hopes to reach his goal of $100,000 by start of the Marathon on April 16.
A portion of the money will also be used to do research on improving cancer treatments for children.
Weinstein said childhood cancers have increased slightly in the last 30 years, particularly childhood leukemia. And treating cancer in children is more challenging than treating adults because children’s brains and bodies are still developing and growing, and doctors have to think about minimizing the long-term side effects of therapy.
“The biggest challenge is you’re hoping to have someone live another 70 to 80 years,” Weinstein said. “So the long-term effects are very critical.”
Weinstein said that although there have been some observations in the last couple of years of women in Newton having higher rates of breast cancer, childhood cancer rates in the city are comparable with other locations.
Dr. Thomas Lynch, Newton resident and the chief of oncology at Mass. General who will be running in the Marathon for the 10th year, said cancer rates in Massachusetts are the fourth highest in the country, after Rhode Island, Maine and New Jersey, and are still increasing.
When asked why cancer is more common in the Northeast, however, Lynch said he did not know.
As for Springer, he plans to come watch Weinstein run the Boston Marathon for the first time this year.
“We’ve been invited every year, but we haven’t gone before,” Springer said, adding that he has always supported Weinstein’s fundraising efforts for children’s cancer. “But I think this year, we will go.”
He will stand on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Center Street in Newton on Monday afternoon.
“I guess this time it’s my turn to be taken care of by the community,” he said.
Springer is more than halfway through his chemotherapy treatments and is hoping to be cancer-free by the time the next school year rolls around.
To sponsor Weinstein’s Boston Marathon fundraiser, send checks made payable to the Mass. General Marathon Team to Howard J. Weinstein, M.D., Chief, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Mass. General Hospital forChildren, 55 Fruit St., Yawkey 8B-8892, Boston, MA 02114.
