Hundreds students took to the track at Southern Regional High School on Tuesday to help raise money for the family of a classmate battling cancer. Watch video
STAFFORD TOWNSHIP - Guadalupe Lopez-Galindo is one of those students who is always happy and always eager to do her schoolwork.
But in addition to her homework and other studies, the Stafford Township Middle School seventh grader has recently been hard at work with something else - fighting cancer.
The bubbly 13 year old - who is called "Lupe" by her friends - was diagnosed in early December with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer prevalent in children and young adults.
Lopez-Galindo underwent chemotherapy treatments at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital prior to having surgery early this month to remove a bone in the joint of her right knee where the tumor was located and replace it with a piece of metal.
She will have to undergo more treatments before doctors are able to check to see if the surgery and chemotherapy worked.
The ordeal has taken toll on Lopez-Galindo's family, emotionally and financially.
"They are very hardworking people. Dad works three different jobs and mom has been in and out of work, because Lupe is so young that when she has to go to the hospital and stay over for days and days at a time, mom has to go with her," said Megan Hart, Lopez-Galindo's math teacher.
So on Tuesday morning, approximately 900 of Southern Regional Middle School's students took part in a walk-a-thon - called "Laps for Lupe" - to help raise money to help raise money to support their classmate's family.
"We can't cure the cancer, so we're trying to cure some of their other needs at home," Hart said.
The response from the students since the fundraiser was announced was "nothing short of amazing," Hart added.
"We raised more than $7,500 in a week and a half, and money was still coming in today," she said. "We just asked the students to try to raise $5 apiece and we'd give them a 'Love for Lupe' bracelet and they'd get to walk on the track, but so many of them far exceeded that. They brought in $10, $20, $50, quite a few kids brought in $100. The outpouring of support was so amazing, it was beyond what we had hoped."
Near the end of the walk-a-thon, school staff members announced that the fundraiser had raised more than $7,640, which brought tears to the grateful family's eyes.
The family knew about the fundraiser and knew that they wanted to be at the walk-a-thon if Lupe was healthy enough to be there.
What they didn't know, is just how many people cared.
"This is great, we weren't expecting too many people. I was expecting some kids, but there are so many people here," said Lupe's father, Pablo, who pushed his smiling daughter around the track several times in a wheelchair during the walk-a-thon so she could be with her classmates.
"Dealing with cancer is tough with anybody, especially with a kid," he said. "But now it feels like we have a lot of people behind us. It's not just our family, it's her teachers and all of her friends."
Lupe - who was also accompanied by her mother, Elodia, and sisters, Ale and Sopia, on Tuesday - was even surprised by the turnout.
"There are a lot of people here who I know and I a lot of people here I don't. I think it's so amazing that so many people are doing this even though they barely know me," she said. "I'm going to be getting through this."
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.