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Check students await the signal to launch balloons in honor of Kassidy Foster.

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Students remember classmate

By Roger Mannon

With a steady breeze blowing, it was a perfect day for a balloon launch. Teachers and students at Check Elementary School used the occasion to remember one of their own last Friday.
Kassidy Foster was a student at Check. She was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. She died during the summer break.
Shortly after the cancer diagnosis, Kassidy was adopted as one of the “samefight” kids. Samefight.org was established on behalf of two young boys diagnosed with cancer - Joshua Cantrell and Chance Harman. Both of them preceded Kassidy in death.
Among the events her classmates and teachers used on her behalf during her illness was a “Pretty in Pink Day.” Most of the balloons at the Friday launch were pink. The classes marched out to the playground for the ceremonies.
Family members carried white balloons. “They’ve chosen not to say anything today,” said Check principal Mike Greco. “They want this day to belong to you.”
As part of the ceremony, a pink dogwood tree was planted beside the picnic shelter. Kassidy’s father put in the first shovel of dirt, and then students completed the planting.
A procession of classmates read stanzas from a poem in Kassidy’s honor. Then the balloons were released, and they ascended into the clouds to the east.