Local News - December 2002

Community opens its hearts — and wallets — to help Denver family’s only Christmas dream come true

By JACOB RUDOLPH, Staff Writer

December 18, 2002 - The Schoenleb family has a short Christmas wish list.

All they want is for three-year-old McKenzie Schoenleb to get well.

With just a week until Christmas, as most people are frantically finishing their holiday preparations, McKenzie, who has leukemia, is undergoing a rare cell transplant that will hopefully save her life.

Although the Schoenleb’s are not asking for much, the east Lincoln community where they once lived is giving a lot.

A fund raiser was held Saturday at Cappy’s Restaurant in Denver to collect money for McKenzie and her family. More than 50 area businesses donated money and raffle prizes for the event.

Outside the restaurant, a pit crew demonstrated techniques, while Santa took requests from children.  Inside, people ate and children played games, while retired NASCAR driver Buddy Baker signed autographs for donations.

The event was more like a community gathering, said fund drive organizer Sue Lilly. An opportunity for a community to show how much it cares.

“This is so important, especially this time of year,” Lilly said.  “Everyone has responded so well, I’ve been real impressed.”

Cappy’s Restaurant owner, Russell Craig, donated 20 percent of Saturday’s total sales to the drive.

Craig said he and his wife, Lisa, were honored to host such an event.

“This is the season for this, especially for the children” Craig said. “It’s not about us, it’s about helping the community.”

The fund drive, culminating in Saturday’s event, raised a total of $8,100 for the Schoenleb  family.

With mounting medical costs and other expenses to pay, Rick and Christina Schoenleb are ecstatic about the financial help their former community has offered them.

“This has caught us by surprise,” Rick Schoenleb said. “Money was something we were so worried about.  The donations people have made help us keep bills paid and food on the table.”

 Rick and Christina, along with McKenzie’s siblings —Dustin, Brandon, Candace and Morgan — have been living at the Ronald McDonald House in Durham since McKenzie was admitted to Duke Medical Center in July.

The family moved to Denver in the spring of this year, and was only there five days before McKenzie was diagnosed with leukemia.

Despite the fact that few people in the Denver community have ever met McKenzie or her family, donations have poured in from all across the area.

The support the Denver area has shown goes beyond financial assistance.

The guest book on McKenzie’s web page is filled with words of hope and best wishes — prayers and thoughts for a young girl most of them have never met.

Reading the messages is cathartic for Christina Schoenleb.

“That’s the highlight of my day, reading McKenzie’s messages,” she said. “I’m saving all of them in a scrapbook to show her when she gets out of the hospital.”

Christina proudly smiles when she talks about McKenzie.  She carries around photographs of her daughter and points out her favorite poses.

In every snapshot, McKenzie is smiling, hooked up to bags and machines, with no concern or worry in her piercing blue eyes.

“She doesn’t understand how sick she is,” Rick Schoenleb said.

McKenzie has a form of Leukemia, known as Acute Megakaryocytic Leukemia, or AML (M-7).

Since July, she has undergone two failed cord blood cell transplants, along with numerous chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Although the cancer cells have apparently been destroyed, her body still is not growing healthy blood cells, despite the two previous transplants.

Today, she is undergoing a rare, possibly first of its kind, third cord blood cell transplant.

“Duke can’t find another case in their database where someone has received three cord blood cell transplants,” Christina said.

The doctors fear a third transplant, along with all the radiation treatments she has undergone in the past five months, may put undue stress on McKenzie’s vital organs, especially her lungs and heart, Christina said.  Her doctors give her a one in 10 chance of surviving the procedure.

Despite the physical strain she has been under, McKenzie’s spirit is unwavering —  an inspiration to her parents and those who hear her story.

Late Sunday night, Christina Schoenleb wrote in her online journal: “McKenzie is an amazing little girl.  She is so full of strength, courage and love, and look at all she has conquered. Maybe we can all learn what is really important in our lives and how fragile and short life here on earth really is.”

You can visit McKenzie’s web site at: http://caringbridge.org/nc/mckenziefay/.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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