Thursday, May 15, 2008By ERIC CRUMP/Editor
In the background Eastwood third-grade teacher Crystal McGraw smiles as her students, Madison Rule and Brant Sims, talk with Savannah Watring, an 8-year-old from Syracuse whose family is raising $50,000 to take her to China for an experimental treatment that they hope will improve her sight. Savannah was born blind. McGraw's class collected change to contribute to Savannah's trip fund.(Eric Crump/Democra-News) [Click to enlarge]
What is the price of sight?Savannah Watring's family thinks $50,000 is not too much to pay if it helps restore the sight of the 8-year-old who has been blind from birth. And it takes a lot of work and a lot of help to raise that kind of money.
Third graders in Crystal McGraw's class at Eastwood Elementary School in Marshall have done their bit for the cause.
McGraw is a second cousin to Watring, and when she told her students about Savannah's hope, her students wanted to help.
Savannah has optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH), a condition that has no sanctioned cure in the U.S. But in China an experimental stem cell procedure is giving families reason to hope that the gift of sight might be possible for their blind children.
"The kids and I were working on a project in December about Christmas around the World," McGraw said. "I told them about the Africa project my class did last year. I mentioned Savannah and where she was going and it went from there ..."
McGraw said she wasn't sure at first that the class could do much, but her students would not sit idly by.
"I told them that since we had just collected canned goods I did not know what we could do for her (monetarily)," McGraw said. "They were adamant about doing something! So I told them they could bring pocket change in and we could give it to her."
McGraw said she remembered when she first met the incoming students for this year's class, Grant Maupin asked me if we could do "a cool project like your class did for Africa kids."
"I was blown away that he was interested in that. I told him, that if a project fell in our lap like that one did then we would definitely do it," she said.
"I guess his wish came true as he was one of the head students behind the Savannah project going door to door in his neighborhood collecting change," she added.
The class raised more than $400.
To show her appreciation, Savannah visited McGraw's class Friday, April 18, and spent some time talking with the students who contributed to her trip fund.
She told them about her horse, Benny, about the music she loves and about her favorite literary character, Junie B. Jones.
McGraw said the visit was a big success on both sides.
"She has been talking about visiting Eastwood since she left. She keeps wanting to come back."
And her students learned math lessons from tallying their collections, plus a great deal about "how to treat others with respect no matter what, and we practiced what it would be like to be blind."
"The life lessons are endless" she said. "These are the things I will remember most about teaching."
McGraw said Savannah's family was inspired to undertake the China trip when they heard the story of Rylea Bartlett, another Missouri girl with ONH who received the experimental treatment in China.
They hope to make the trip this summer, according to a story in The Sedalia Democrat. The treatments take about a month to complete.
http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1403068.html
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