She's my inspiration. She is a beautiful person, inside & out, always does good to others . She listens to everything I have to say with out interupting me, I could not have asked for a better person in my life.
"Do all the good you can,By all the means you can,In all the ways you can,In all the places you can,At all the times you can,...To all the people you can,As long as ever you can.”-john wesley.
I had promised her to always be there for her & I was going to keep my promise. I wanted so badly to show her support I wanted so badly to show her that I love her & that everyone else does too.
So, Kelsey Wilson another one of my dearest friends and I had a great idea, we were going to get ALL our sophomore class to wear t-shirts , cancer t-shirts, to show support, to give hope, to remind them of Gods love. The idea spread through out our whole class & even some people from different grades payed for shirts to support! Jessica Barker was NOT to know about this, that's right it was going to be a suprise! The weeks went by, we gathered donations from our student body and from the Toress company whom grasiously donated 500 dollars to go toward this cause. I'll let the newspaper help me tell my story..
East Surry sophomore Jessica Barker certainly knows the value of a good friend. But even she was surprised by the lengths that friends Kelsey Wilson and Nathallie Chavez went to recently in order to show support for Barker and her ailing grandfather.
Barker’s grandfather, Robert Gordon, is in the midst of a battle with cancer. The stress has taken its toll not only on Gordon but on his granddaughter with whom he shares a particularly close relationship. Wilson and Chavez had seen the effects of that stress and had concocted a plan to surprise their friend in a way that would show their support for Jessica and her grandfather.
The pair, also East Surry sophomores, had spent weeks working on a plan they had dubbed “Project Hope.” They had solicited donations and were eventually able to purchase T-shirts for the entire sophomore class. The front of each black shirt bore a message of support accompanied by the image of a ribbon and the word, “Hope.” The back of each shirt featured Robert Gordon’s favorite verse from the Bible, Psalm 56:3, which states, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Wilson and Chavez received additional donations from their classmates that allowed them to completely pay off the shirts and, with leftover funds, provide Jessica with a framed picture of herself and her grandfather.
Throughout the process, however, Barker was unaware of what her friends were doing as well as what they were planning. She was made aware on Dec. 10, when the girls covertly kept Jessica away from classmates as everyone put on their shirts.
She first saw the shirts on Wilson and Chavez and was touched, thinking they’d had the shirts made for themselves as a simple show of support. But then, as she walked the hallways of the school and saw so many of her classmates wearing identical shirts, she realized the enormity of their project and of their support.
“It was definitely a surprise,” she said with a smile. “It was great but I couldn’t believe I hadn’t known about it. I couldn’t put into words how amazing it felt that they’d do that for me.”
“But as good as I felt,” she continued, “I needed my grandpa to see it.”
Again, Wilson and Chavez were eager to support their friend. Barker plays for the East Surry High School basketball team and the school had a pep rally planned in preparation for that night’s East Surry-West Stokes game. Students planned to wear their shirts to the rally and Jessica called her grandmother who agreed to get Gordon to attend, without knowing about the shirts.
When Gordon came to the rally, he was greeted by a mass of students showing their support for him by a simple message on their shirts. And according to Barker, her strong, reserved, usually stoic grandfather was touched by what he saw.
“He was speechless,” Barker recalled. “It brought tears to his eyes. His spirits were a little down and I think it lifted him.”
Barker was especially impressed by Gordon’s reaction after her game that evening.
“He loves sports,” she noted, “and we’ve always talked about sports together. After a game, he always wants to go over it with me. But that night, all he talked about was the rally and the T-shirts. That’s when I knew how much it had touched him.”
“These girls did this for their friend out of love,” explained Monica Wilson, Kelsey Wilson’s mother. “They wanted Jessica to know that they love her and support her and are there for her and her family. This had no purpose but to say we love you, we’re here for you and we’re praying for you.”
Do you know how long it took us to get Beffer out of class? FOREVER. This girl works hard in school, her mother even LIED to her & told her that the school had given her a free breakfast at Mcd. that morning. She refused to go because she had a MATH TEST, it made things so much more complicated. She was in the building as we gave out 200 shirts, for one hour , during first period we ran all around campus , handing out t-shirts explaining the game plan. Finally, Mrs.Smith called beffer up to the office , so we could give the t-shirts out to her classroom & GUESS WHAT! Beffers math teacher did not allow her to go because of her MATH TEST, we had forgotten to tell Mrs. Martin what was going on! Luckily, one of the teachers manage to explain what we were doing over the phone. When Jessica came back to the classroom it was time for break, she was stalled in the room for a few sec.. then the big SUPRISE was waiting outside, as she made her way through the hall 200 students stood holding hands , with there cancer t-shirts on & yelled out "WE LOVE YOU JESSICA" ..The tears in her eyes, the look on her face, was something that I would replay over & over again if God allowed me to do so..It was an experience of a LifeTime.
Barker’s grandfather, Robert Gordon, is in the midst of a battle with cancer. The stress has taken its toll not only on Gordon but on his granddaughter with whom he shares a particularly close relationship. Wilson and Chavez had seen the effects of that stress and had concocted a plan to surprise their friend in a way that would show their support for Jessica and her grandfather.
The pair, also East Surry sophomores, had spent weeks working on a plan they had dubbed “Project Hope.” They had solicited donations and were eventually able to purchase T-shirts for the entire sophomore class. The front of each black shirt bore a message of support accompanied by the image of a ribbon and the word, “Hope.” The back of each shirt featured Robert Gordon’s favorite verse from the Bible, Psalm 56:3, which states, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Wilson and Chavez received additional donations from their classmates that allowed them to completely pay off the shirts and, with leftover funds, provide Jessica with a framed picture of herself and her grandfather.
Throughout the process, however, Barker was unaware of what her friends were doing as well as what they were planning. She was made aware on Dec. 10, when the girls covertly kept Jessica away from classmates as everyone put on their shirts.
She first saw the shirts on Wilson and Chavez and was touched, thinking they’d had the shirts made for themselves as a simple show of support. But then, as she walked the hallways of the school and saw so many of her classmates wearing identical shirts, she realized the enormity of their project and of their support.
“It was definitely a surprise,” she said with a smile. “It was great but I couldn’t believe I hadn’t known about it. I couldn’t put into words how amazing it felt that they’d do that for me.”
“But as good as I felt,” she continued, “I needed my grandpa to see it.”
Again, Wilson and Chavez were eager to support their friend. Barker plays for the East Surry High School basketball team and the school had a pep rally planned in preparation for that night’s East Surry-West Stokes game. Students planned to wear their shirts to the rally and Jessica called her grandmother who agreed to get Gordon to attend, without knowing about the shirts.
When Gordon came to the rally, he was greeted by a mass of students showing their support for him by a simple message on their shirts. And according to Barker, her strong, reserved, usually stoic grandfather was touched by what he saw.
“He was speechless,” Barker recalled. “It brought tears to his eyes. His spirits were a little down and I think it lifted him.”
Barker was especially impressed by Gordon’s reaction after her game that evening.
“He loves sports,” she noted, “and we’ve always talked about sports together. After a game, he always wants to go over it with me. But that night, all he talked about was the rally and the T-shirts. That’s when I knew how much it had touched him.”
“These girls did this for their friend out of love,” explained Monica Wilson, Kelsey Wilson’s mother. “They wanted Jessica to know that they love her and support her and are there for her and her family. This had no purpose but to say we love you, we’re here for you and we’re praying for you.”
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