Youngster raising money to help kids with cancer

SANDPOINT — Sahara Williams loves K9 officers so when one of her favorites challenged her to raise money for Coins4Cure, she was in.

“It just makes me happy because we’re donating money for the treatment and money for the parents, like the families, so they can have enough money to stay in a hotel [so they can see the kids],” said the 9-year-old of why she wanted to be a part last year of Coins4Cure, a fundraiser developed in 2014 by Alpharetta Children’s Dentistry & Orthodontics as a way to raise money to cure childhood cancer.

Soon, a jar and information about the group were on their way to Sahara. She contacted Super 1 and Co-Op and held donations drives at both stores and raised more than $1,100.

“I’m kind of the only kid last year who did it,” the fourth-grader said.

Sahara said she had so much fun she wanted to raise money again this year and the manager at Super 1 was more than happy to help out. Her first day was a success and she’s hoping her efforts today will be just as successful. The fourth-grader will be at the store from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It makes her happy to help out, knowing that she’s helping kids fight cancer and helping their families as well.

“It makes me happy because I’m helping other people instead of just being like selfish and saying ‘I want this right now because some people can’t get that, and some people stay in hospitals basically for months over and over, children, and it’s just sad because they just sit there,” Sahara said. “They only have a TV, they can just watch TV and that gets boring. Like they can’t go out and do whatever they want. They can’t go out and play, they can’t go to the park, and it’s sad because some types of cancer make you lose your hair.” Making matters worse, she added, is that some kids with cancer get bullied or treated differently because they are wearing a hat or people think they’re different.

“[Some kids] don’t understand what kids with cancer have to go through,” Sahara said. “They think being in the hospital it’s the best place to be. You can get to do whatever you want. You can watch TV. You get free food. You get delicious food. You get ice cream sometimes.

“But it’s not that way. You have all of these tubes and things all over you and you can barely sleep because you can barely move and if you do, one might pull out and then something will go wrong and you’ll have like three doctors trying to get it back in the same vein.”

People who donate up to $10 will receive butter-mint candies or chocolates in the shape of gold coins. Those who donate more will receive “a really cool wristband” from Coins4Cure.

Her grandmother, Sherry Kensinger, said she’s proud of her granddaughter and what she’s trying to accomplish. She warned her last year that it might be a lot of work and wasn’t sure her granddaughter knew what she was getting into. But the youth rose to the challenge and had a great time and helped out other kids.

“I was very proud, Kensinger said. “I didn’t know if she’d go through with it. I didn’t know when we got there how she would react or engage with the people going in or coming out. I’m very proud of her.”

In her spare time, the fourth-grader loves to dance and do gymnastics. She also likes helping her friend, Aiden, make bead animals — some are given to kids at school and others he sells around the neighborhood to raise money for the animal shelter or to help pets needing medical care.

She also likes helping out local K9s and their human officers, and bakes cookies with her grandmother for local policemen and firefighters on Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Special cookies are also baked for the four-legged officers in the shape of their breed.

And Sahara has a message for people who meet a kid with cancer.

“It’s not their fault they have it. It just happens. And it’s sad for the kids because they don’t have any friends,” she said “Just pretend like they’re a normal kid and they basically are.

“If you see someone with cancer, act like they’re a normal human. That makes them happy because they feel like, ‘Wow, someone thinks I’m important’ or ‘Wow, somebody thinks I can be friends with somebody’ because a lot of cancer kids get into trouble for random things they don’t do.

“And the reason for that is that bullies always think the people are disabled and can’t do anything like they can, they aren’t a normal kid and they judge them and they’re like you’re not a normal kid you should go to a bullying school where you only have to homework and that kind of stuff.”

For more information about Coins4CURE or to donate (you can reference Sahara Williams if you want the money to count toward her total), go to coins4cure.org.

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.