Community reaches out to girl stricken with leukemia
By Sharon Makokian
Acorn Staff Writer

LISA ADAMS/The Acorn BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU EMILY--Lupin Hill Elementary students Sarah Kimball, left, Samantha Maggio and Ashley Yenche hold a photo of their friend and fellow student Emily Buelow who suffered a relapse of leukemia last October. The three girls recently organized a garage sale to assist Emily's family with expenses and medical bills. If you missed the garage sale and would like to help the Buelow family, please send checks to Lupin Hill Elementary School, in care of the PFC at 26210 Adamor Road, Calabasas, 91302. Emily also needs blood and blood platelet donations. She's in Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. If you can make a donation of blood or platelets, call (323) 669-2441 and be sure to mention Emily Buelow.

Three Lupin Hill Elementary School fifth-graders raised $1,700 for their schoolmate, leukemia patient Emily Buelow and her family, by hosting yard sales over the past two weekends.

The 10-year-old girls—Samantha Maggio, Sarah Kimball and Ashley Yenche—raised the money with the help of Samantha’s mother, Laura Maggio, and the cooperation of the entire elementary school.

"The yard sales were the girls’ idea, but I really put it together," said Laura Maggio, who lives next door to the Buelows.

The original sale occurred Sat., Feb. 10, but rain forced them to stop within two hours. Even so, they had made $1,000 that day. With lots of inventory left over, they rescheduled the sale for last weekend when they pulled in another $700.

CHUCK ROGERS/The Acorn RUNNING FOR EMILY-Jennifer Calabrese heads for home following Saturday training in preparation for this summer's San Diego Marathon. Calabrese will be participating to raise money to fight leukemia in the name of Emily Buelow. See page 21.

The girls made signs and distributed flyers in several Calabasas neighborhoods and at school. Everyone at Lupin Hill was asked to donate at least one item for the sale.

"My teacher told everybody that if they bring in one thing, they could skip a test," said Kimball. "We did get a lot of donations. It was nice of everybody to do that."

Kimball said she came up with the idea for the sale when she was taking stock of her belongings.

"I was cleaning out my room and realized I had stuff I really don’t need. I thought about Emily and doing a fundraiser. Then I thought about maybe getting the school involved," she said.

"I met Emily at school. She was really nice. The next thing I hear, she has leukemia. I wanted to help her," she said. "When the adults started doing fundraisers, Sammi (Samantha Maggio) and I got the idea … that children should be helping her, too, not just adults."

Samantha Maggio said she "felt bad because (Emily) can’t have anyone to hang out with and can’t go back to her house (right now)."

"I wanted to raise a lot of money. (Emily’s) been wanting to go to Disney World. I want to raise enough money so she and her family can go wherever they want on a trip," she said.

Yenche said she’d met Emily a few times, because her brother was in the same kindergarten class, and found her to be "sweet and funny." She said she enjoyed working at the yard sale.

"It made me feel really good inside, like I was helping someone out with their life," she said. "I think everybody should try to help everybody out a little bit."

Laura Maggio, who’d gotten to know the Buelows over the summer, had already raised money for the family in December by faxing hundreds of businesses and asking for donations.

"I raised $1,695 from people who did not even know Emily. I thought that was spectacular," she said.

"People have just been pouring in money. Tracey (Buelow, Emily’s mother) said that if it wasn’t for the community, (the family) couldn’t have stayed here in their house," said Laura Maggio.

"I just hope Emmy gets home soon," she said. "She is just the most ‘up’ kind of a child. When she was in remission, she was the friendliest kid. Even when she had to wear a (germicidal) mask and was in a wheelchair, she always had a smile on her face."

"Even when she was not feeling well, she was always very receptive to you. If she was hurting, she surely never showed it. She’s a strong little fighter," Maggio concluded.