Dateline: March 24, 2005

A's for Amy seeks to raise funds for Polito

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Following in the footsteps of Hedley track athlete Jaci Copelin, two Clarendon students have come forward with another effort to raise funds for a local expectant mother who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Audrey and Hadley Jones, who are respectively eighth and sixth graders at Clarendon Junior High, had never known of Amy Polito, until a story in the March 10 edition of The Clarendon Enterprise reported that Copelin had started taking pledges based on her track performance – $5 for each first place, $3 for second, and $1 for third – and planned to give the money to Polito and her husband Tony, who is a local state trooper.

While many families will experience the anguish that comes with fighing cancer, the Politos’ situation is doubly trying because Amy is currently pregnant with the couple’s first child, and she will have to wait until it is safe for doctors to take her baby early before they can begin to treat her Hodgkins Lymphoma at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston.

The Jones kids’ idea is called “A’s for Amy,” and they are challenging local junior high and high school students to give $2 for every A and $1 for every B on the last nine weeks report card and to put the money in a fund for the Politos.

“I am amazed at their character and thoughtfulness,” mother Larinda Brown said of her children’s idea. “My kids know the effects a long term illness can have on a family. They know exactly what it’s like and how devastating it can be.”

Brown’s kids will not handle any money. Instead a fund has been set up at the Herring National Bank for the donations. She encourages everyone to make the donations based on their kids’ or grandkids’ report cards or else sponsor another kid’s grades.

Money should be sent directly to the bank, which can be contacted at 874-3556.