Pam Wagner faced her Girl Scout troop last August and told them the bad news: The breast cancer she had battled four years had returned.
"I just looked at their faces and they just looked scared," she recalled.
So, Wagner decided to turn her disease into a learning experience for her sixth-grade troop from Pinckney School.
The project ended Tuesday as the girls presented Lawrence Memorial Hospital with a 5-by-5-foot quilt they constructed to honor patients in the hospital's oncology unit. Some of the eight girls signed blocks of the quilt in memory of cancer victims they knew.
The service project was inspired by Wagner, who said the hospital always seems cold when she comes in for treatments. It also was a tribute to Girl Scouts founder Juliette Low, who died of breast cancer in 1927.
For the girls in Troop. No. 667, it also was a way to deal with their leader's disease.
"We were talking about it when we were doing the quilt," said troop member Ashley Foster. "We asked her a few questions about how it feels and if it hurts a lot."
Wagner was diagnosed with cancer in October 1996. She's had two recurrences since then. She still undergoes what she calls "moderate treatments" to ensure the cancer doesn't return.
The eight girls in Wagner's troop toured the oncology center in October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They also learned how to perform self breast-exams.
"At first it sounded a little disgusting, to learn about breast cancer," Foster said. "After we learned about it, it wasn't so disgusting."
Members of a Lawrence breast cancer support group and Stitch On Needlework donated the fabric for the quilt. Few of the girls had experience sewing, Wagner said, which made the process challenging.
"The hard thing was when we sewed, everybody would get stuck by a needle," said troop member Melissa Shinogee.
Shari Kretzschmer, oncology nurse practitioner, said it's important for girls to be informed about breast cancer at an early age. She said the quilt likely will hang on the wall at the oncology unit.
"It's a beautiful quilt that our people need to see -- that the community as young as these girls are willing to support the center," she said.
-- Staff writer Terry Rombeck can be reached at 832-7145.
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