By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Pink is Emily Weber’s favorite color.
It was her favorite color long before she wore it for breast cancer awareness.
Now, she calls it her “power color.”
And every Wednesday she is surrounded by the power of pink from her Kenwood Elementary School family, where she is teaching second grade as a maternity leave substitute.
The color has become even more meaningful as she deals with breast cancer for the second time in two years.
The first time started in January 2023 when she noticed, not the common lump symptom, but instead some discharge. She had just been cleared for a return-to-skiing adventure after a nine-month recovery from ACL surgery.
The extreme skier and snow boarder wasn’t going to let what she thought was an infection interfere with her long-awaited ski trip. When she returned from the trip, the discharge was still happening, she recalled.
The first checkups, which included a mammogram and then a biopsy of a calcification spot—nothing checked from the discharge—was found to be benign. And she was cleared. That was at the end of February.
By mid-March, she had new symptoms and by mid-April, she had her first diagnosis: Ductal Carcinoma in Situ.
Her surgery, a bilateral mastectomy, was June 13, 2023. In her true spirit, sprinkled with humor, she hosted a “Bye-Bye Boobies” party with her closest circle of friends the night before surgery, complete with fun T-shirts and theme-appropriate snacks.
Fast forward to June 13, 2024. Weber celebrated the one-year anniversary of “kicking cancer’s butt.” She said she didn’t feel quite back to her spunky, active self, but was excited for the new school year because she would be teaching at Kenwood
Weber, who had spent more than a decade in Colorado teaching and loving her life in a snow sport haven, split the 2022-23 school year substitute teaching in Ohio and Colorado. Though she grew up in Bowling Green as a Conneaut Elementary School student (and graduated from Bowling Green High School in 2000), she fell in love with the students and staff when she substituted at Kenwood. So, when Kenwood Principal Michel Bechstein offered her a full-time, temporary position from August to November this year, she jumped at the opportunity.
Before school started, she made a quick trip to Colorado to clear out her home. While there, she noticed a lump in her right breast. She figured it was “part of my healing or a scar bump,” but with school starting, she skipped the step of a doctor’s appointment and went straight for an ultrasound followed immediately with a biopsy.
By the time the positive biopsy results came back, school had started, and she was in the classroom, enveloping her sweet, little second graders with enthusiasm and love.
The first weeks of class were interrupted by doctors’ appointments and tests. However, at the same time as the estrogen-positive tumor was being diagnosed, there was a swelling of support from her Kenwood family.
She had a PET scan scheduled on the second Wednesday of the school year. When she arrived at school by about noon that day, she stopped into the office and commented on Secretary Jen Morlock’s “pretty in pink” outfit.
She next connected with Kisha Nichols, the other second-grade teacher who had been kindly picking up with Weber’s lesson plans. “She was head to toe in pink,” Weber said.
Not until Principal Bechstein popped into her room wearing a pink shirt did she start to question, “How was it that the only three people I had seen today were all in pink?”
She joked with the principal, saying. “I’m going to pretend that you three are wearing pink for me; it’s my power pink.”
“That’s it,” Mrs. Nichols affirmed.
“The idea came from Heather Potter, one of our teachers, right after we got the news,” Bechstein explained. “We wanted a way to show our support.”
On the first Pink Wednesday, unsure if Weber would return to school after her PET scan, the staff all donned pink and planned to take a group photo to give to her. When she made it to school by mid-day, the photo included her, surrounded by “my people,” Weber said.
After the group photo, the one day of wearing pink evolved into Pink Wednesdays and now has grown into a pink Bobcats T-shirt fundraiser that has spread to the students and their families, Bechstein said.
The shirts, created by one of Weber’s BGHS friends, are part of a fundraiser to help with Weber’s medical bills, but they are featured in a photo that she will keep with her as she heads into the second cancer surgery on Wednesday.
The second graders were amped up on Tuesday when the photo was taken. Everyone was wearing their pink Bobcat shirts in honor of their teacher. They were bouncing off the walls as they got ready for the photo, but they listened to her instructions and lined up perfectly for the photo before they were allowed to have a little dance party to the “Happy” song.
“Although Emily is filling in for a maternity leave, she helped out at Kenwood all last year,” Bechstein said. “Over the last school year and this year, she has built great relationships with students and staff.”
“Kenwood teachers are so supportive of not only the students but all the staff,” Bechstein said. “That is just what we do; we are a family.”
Weber’s positive attitude, which is part of who she is, has been infectious in the classroom, the school and everywhere she goes.
She grew up with the mentality that each day is a gift. It was a lesson learned from her mother, Rachel Weber, who battled retinal cancer.
“She had those tough conversations with me when I was four years old, so I grew up with her modeling seizing life, a warrior spirit and a survivor spirit,” Weber said. “She’s such an amazing example of living life a day at a time and not taking things for granted.”
Weber, who loves her students, believes in focusing on the positives and gains so much energy in the process of supporting the students.
“They are excited to be here. They love school. They love their teachers. There is a lot of joy in the school,” she said.
Because she talked to the students about being brave and strong, Tuesday was designated wear pink or superheroes day in Weber’s classroom. “It will be my send-off for surgery,” she said. “I will go into surgery with all their warrior power.”
“I’m so grateful to be on their education team,” Weber said. “There is a lot of joy and beauty in all of this. Being part of the Kenwood family is the silver lining. In every way they are supporting me.”
She also has been stunned by the strong circle of support beyond the school walls. After being thrown off with the second breast cancer diagnosis the first week of school, the power of the entire community has been “unreal,” she said.
“I’ve had my down days. I’ve been angry and really sad. I’ve been heartbroken for so many reasons, especially with having breast cancer,” she said. “But the love and support of my principal, staff, teachers, students and friends and family has been phenomenal—the silver lining.”
