Fighting cancer, finding strength in Landon School community

Middle schooler gets show of support

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Landon School seventh-grader Paul Adkins, 13, laughs with sixth-grader Kevin Keena, 12, while eating lunch in the school cafeteria. Students and parents from the Bethesda school recently raised more than $5,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Adkins, who is completing treatment for lymphoma. Click here to enlarge this photo David S. Spence⁄The Gazette Middle School students Paul Adkins, 13, and Kevin Keena, 12, joke around during lunch at the Landon School in Bethesda. Adkins, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in November, inspired classmates to raise thousands of dollars for the Children’s Hospital and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

‘‘I don’t even remember driving to the office,” said Deidre Adkins, Paul’s mother. ‘‘I was thinking, ‘This is not happening.’”

Classmates and teachers at the Landon School in Bethesda also couldn’t believe the news.

‘‘The school’s community reaction was I think shock, sorrow and compassion...and really just sympathy and empathy for Paul and the family,” said Doug Norry, Middle School headmaster for the all-boys school.

Yet even while enduring surgery and five rounds of chemotherapy, Adkins didn’t dwell in helpless sadness. Instead, he tried his best to stay involved in school.

‘‘It was kind of hard because I really felt like I should have been working and I should have been at school doing work even though I couldn’t,” he said.

Between treatments, Adkins returned to school to attend classes and take exams.

‘‘That’s where he wanted to be,” Deidre Adkins said. ‘‘He didn’t want to be sitting at home thinking about it or watching TV. He had enough of the ‘OK, I’m sick’ down time. Let’s move on and get through it.”

Adkins also kept up with friends by chatting online and attending birthday parties and bar mitzvahs when he could.

‘‘During Christmas, I got a laptop so I was able to go online when I was in the hospital,” he said. ‘‘When I got out, I’d see them.”

Although he could no longer play on a basketball team that his father coached, Adkins went to as many games as he could and talked about sports often with his friends.

‘‘It was kind of hard to sit on the sidelines because we had kind of a tough season,” he said.

As Adkins fought his cancer and strived to stay active, the Landon School community did the same.

In a flurry of fund-raisers, students raised thousands of dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Children’s Hospital — all in honor of their seventh-grade classmate.

At the ‘‘Landon House of Pancakes,” a pancake breakfast held March 1 at the school, all 216 students in the Middle School ate stacks of syrupy flapjacks while donating $2,000. A parent pledged to match the students’ donations, bringing the total to $4,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

‘‘I thought the turnout was incredible,” Adkins said. ‘‘I didn’t know everyone was going. I thought it was a great thing that they came.”

John Marinelli, a seventh-grade student, helped organize another fund-raiser for his friend by selling orange wristbands engraved with Paul’s initials and the word ‘‘strength.”

‘‘We’ve raised around $1,000,” Marinelli said. ‘‘The community has been very supportive with our idea.”

He hopes to hold a raffle for Washington Wizards tickets as another fund-raiser in the near future.

Students, staff and parents from the school also held a Super Bowl betting pool, a second wristband sale and a blood drive in honor of Adkins.

‘‘In many ways, [Paul] has inspired all of us and has brought out the best in this community,” Norry said.

Adkins has constantly maintained a positive attitude, Marinelli said.

‘‘He’s always got a smile on his face,” he said. ‘‘He’s been like that throughout his whole treatment and I think that’s part of what inspires everybody.”

When Adkins began losing hair because of chemotherapy treatments, Marinelli and other friends shaved their heads to show support.

‘‘We all thought that if he was going bald, he shouldn’t have to be alone,” Marinelli said. ‘‘We wanted to make him feel a little bit more at home at school.”

Adkins has since emerged from his most recent scan without a trace of cancer and returned to school full-time.

While doctors and hospital staff helped get Adkins through the experience medically, the Landon community provided a ‘‘backbone” of support, Deidre Adkins said.

Paul Adkins said his friends have been ‘‘totally incredible,” but his friends and headmaster say that he has been the true inspiration.

Thanks to Adkins, Norry said, the school community has shown how supportive it can be.

‘‘I think that this family, and Paul in particular, inspired an awful lot of people here and really let our true colors of commitment and caring and brotherhood shine through,” he said.