Highland Lakes youth contribute to pediatric brain cancer research

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

MARBLE FALLS — After the first couple of 65-foot rounds of laying down the string of loomed bracelets, Tate Johnson handed the ball off to another youth. The ball still looked as big as it had when he started — about the size of a basketball and weighing more than seven pounds.

“Wow, that’s a lot,” Tate said. And one after another, homeschool kids took turns at Westside Park in Marble Falls on Oct. 22 unrolling the string of bracelets. In August, Tate began reaching out to other youth for help on a project he was doing as part of Loom to the Moon.

Tate, who enjoys making loomed bracelets, learned about 5-year-old Skye Benjamin Hall of Great Britain, who was battling a type of pediatric brain cancer. As part of his treatments, Skye would spend hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber where, to take up time, he would loom bracelets. Looming is a technique used to make these bracelets (along with other items) either by hand or with a small loom.

As Skye was looming, he came up with the idea for Loom to the Moon, a way to raise money for pediatric brain cancer research and awareness. His goal was straight forward: loom enough bracelets that, when laid out as a chain, would be long enough to stretch to the moon. Unfortunately, Skye passed away Aug. 29.

However, his brother, Jesse, took up the challenge. Soon word spread about the project, and people around the world began helping. Tate, who already enjoyed looming, decided to lend his support to the effort and even enlisted the aid of other Highland Lakes homeschoolers and their families.

On Sept. 8, Tate led a workshop during a homeschooling co-op on looming but also asked for the other students help on the Loom to the Moon project.

At the time, Tate wasn’t sure what the end result would be.

As the kids kept laying down the chain of bracelets at Westside Park, the ball grew smaller and smaller. Instead of stretching it out as one long piece, Tate and the others laid it down alongside a 65-foot water-ski rope (because the longest tape measure they had was 16 feet long.) At each end, the student with the ball of bracelets either turned and headed back the other direction or handed off the chain to another youth.

After almost an hour of unwinding, the kids came to round 21, plus three feet.

“It’s 1,368 feet long,” Tate said with a slight grin. He even endured a bunch of fire ant bites during the process.

With the distance known, Tate will send the ball (once rerolled) to Great Britain, where Loom to the Moon organizers will link it into the final chain.

“It feels good to be able to help,” Tate said.

Go to blueskyethinking.org for more information on Skye Hall and Loom to the Moon.

daniel@thepicayune.com