Packsaddle Elementary goes pink for school nurse battling breast cancer
JARED FIELDS • PICAYUNE STAFF
KINGSLAND — It’s not often that keeping a secret is used as a show of support. But that’s just what Packsaddle Elementary School students, staff and parents did when they rallied around the campus nurse, Pam Vidler.Vidler, a 10-year veteran of the school, learned in March she had triple-negative breast cancer. From the initial diagnosis, she was open and honest with friends, coworkers and students about her health.
So when other teachers and students wanted to show their support for the school’s nurse, secrecy was needed.
Lynoma Martin had a few ideas to decorate the halls, make T-shirts and have teachers and students wear them.
“I emailed (Principal Maela Edmonson) and said, ‘Can we do this, this and this.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, go after it,” Martin said.
Organizers created countless pink shirts. Then on a Monday night in late April, Vidler’s supporters transformed the Packsaddle halls into tunnels of pink.
Relying on dozens of elementary school students not to spill the secret isn’t easy.
“It would have been OK if they told; it’s not the end of the world,” Edmonson said. “I was much more impressed with the fact they kept the secret.”
The Tuesday morning when Vidler walked into the school, the children and teachers greeted her all wearing the pink shirts. She found the halls decorated with handmade notes, ribbons and pictures. The scene overwhelmed Vidler.
“I was trying not to burst into tears, and then they had a shirt for me, so I changed (into) it,” Vidler recalled of the morning. “It took awhile that day to look at everything. I couldn’t read everything that’s up.”
Organizers sold more than 400 T-shirts, which raised more than $2,000 to help Vidler with treatments, Edmonson said.
Vidler said she elected to first undergo chemotherapy. She’ll have six treatments, three weeks apart, in Temple through the summer before possible surgery.
Vidler remains optimistic about her prognosis, saying no cancer was found in her lymph nodes when the cancer was detected.
Edmonson said the school works like a family and extolled Vidler’s work.
“I think that she’s definitely a great school nurse,” Edmonson said. “Nurses are in demand. She can work four days a week or less and make much more money, so the decision to be a school nurse is admirable.”
For Vidler, being open about her own health is just another part of her job.
“It’s a scary thing, but I have a very strong faith. The church family is so supportive, this (school) family is so supportive and my own family-family that is supportive has been really great,” she said. “I think some people are surprised about how open I am, but to me, I’m just that kind of person. I want to be able to encourage other women who are going through this.”
jared@thepicayune.com