Big school, bigger heart
<p>Landon Burt, a first grade student at Ramsey Magnet School who suffers from Lukemia, visits with his grandfather Denny Burt Thursday prior to a presentation of $2,500 by classmates and school staff.</p>
<p>Assistant principal at Ramsey Magnet School Crystal Kubista, far right, presents first-grader Landon Burt and his family with a donation and gifts. From left is grandmother Wendy Devenere, mother Tracy Burt, Landon Burt, grandfather Denny Burt and Crystal Kubista.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Landon Burt has a heart of gold.
He believes in a philosophy of kindness. Landon loves everyone, and feels that everyone in the world should be loved. He wishes everyone could be kind to each other.
The 7-year-old Ramsey Magnet School of Science first-grader is battling leukemia, a type of blood and bone marrow cancer.
His love of people was reciprocated Thursday when Ramsey Elementary presented him and his mom, Tracy Burt, with a giant check for $2,500.
"That little boy, you know, from day one of this disease, he has cared about everybody but himself," said Landon's grandma Wendy Devernere. "He's always concerned about all the other kids and his mom."
Devernere joined Landon's grandpa Denny Burt and mom Tracy Burt in the main entrance of Ramsey Elementary near the end of the school day. Tracy had no idea what to expect when she got there, but after the check was presented, she said she felt "super supported."
"I'm a single mom and I never feel like it," she said. "I was so scared to send him to school, but they care so much about him, obviously, so it's really nice. I never worry about him here."
"Go Gold for Landon" is a campaign that assistant principal Crystal Kubista began about a week and a half ago. Kubista worked on collecting donations and organized a three-day fundraiser where students sold Jamba Juices at $3 each to raise funds to help with Landon's treatment costs.
"We started with a small committee of teachers and staff at this school and came up with the idea painting Ramsey gold because of the article that was in The Press," Kubista said. "From there, it snowballed into more and more and more."
In a guest opinion, Tracy wrote about how September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and called for the community to "paint the town gold," the color that represents childhood cancer. Ramsey's answer was to create special gold T-shirts that read "Team Landon" on the front and to generate some monetary support.
"I'll put it in my donation account," Landon said.
All of Landon's classmates wore the gold shirts, as well as many other students and faculty members.
Principal Anna Wilson said Landon's peers have been very supportive. Sometimes when he gets back to school from a tiring treatment, he curls up on cushions in the back of the class and takes a nap.
"It's amazing that a class of 6-year-olds can be so quiet you can hear a pin drop," she said. "They know if he's able to sleep, he'll be healthy."
Kubista said rallying for Landon means a lot to her because of a personal experience with childhood cancer.
"It kind of hits close to home because when I was little I had a friend that had leukemia, and I just wanted to be able to help in some way," she said. "It's pretty powerful and it's a lot of work that goes into it, but then when you see their reaction and how surprised the mom was because she had no idea we were going to give her that much money, then that makes it all worthwhile and it makes you realize that all the work you do is totally for it."
Ramsey Elementary's motto is "big school, bigger heart," something upon which Kubista said the school always likes to expand.
"We want to make sure it feels like a family, and we want to be able to take care of our little family here," she said. So we thought what better way than to support one of our students who is currently going through such a hard time."