The spirit of a school Special week honors 2 bravely battling cancer Sunday, May 07, 2006 • BY MIKE FRASSINELLI • Star-Ledger Staff Pop music blared. Cheerleaders shimmied. Students gossiped in small groups. It could have been any pep rally in any high school football stadium in New Jersey. But there was something different about the one at the end of the school day Friday at North Warren Regional High School. The guests of honor were not an athletic team gearing up for a game against the big rival, but a beloved guidance counselor and a seventh-grader who are fighting the toughest opponent of all -- cancer. The rally at the grades 7 to 12 school in Blairstown Township was the culmination of weeks of events designed to show support for guidance counselor Eileen Snyder and seventh-grader Erica Gaugler and raise $10,000 for the American Cancer Society. The school community ended up raising $16,609, more than 60 percent above its goal. The money will go toward fighting cancer and advocating research. Events during "Snyder Spirit Week" included a penny race, middle school walkathon, faculty-student softball game, Sports Shirt Day and Hats On For Erica Day. In the last event, students donated money to wear a hat during the school day. Students all week wore wrist bands in the color purple, Snyder's favorite. "Erica and I would like to thank you for all that you have given -- your contributions, your time and your talents -- to help fight cancer," said Snyder, 51, who has been diagnosed twice with breast cancer. "In New Jersey alone, there will be 44,000 new cases of cancer this year. There are few families whose lives will go untouched by cancer. But there are even fewer people who are as fortunate as Erica and I, to be touched by such an outpouring of love." "I just want to thank everybody for all the money raised for cancer," added Erica, who has a type of childhood bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma. "I know a cure is on the way." Covering her head with an orange bandanna that matched her grade's official color, Erica smiled as schoolmates participated in a water-balloon toss, rope relay race and a game in which students had to carry a potato between their legs and drop it into a container. The first $1,000 was earned in a dodgeball tournament organized in February by eighth-grade class President Pat Maillet. "It really caught us by surprise," Pat said of the guidance counselor's cancer diagnosis. "When we knew that we could help her out and have fun while doing it, everybody wanted to do it." He also was a schoolmate of Erica's at the Knowlton Township Elementary School in western Warren County. He attended the fateful softball game in which Erica took what seemed to be a routine fall and broke her hip. She was diagnosed with cancer shortly after that. "I just saw my town be ripped apart, like an epidemic had spread," Pat said. "Everybody was so devastated." North Warren Principal Ken Greene said students in the past have complained there wasn't enough school spirit. "If anybody else needs to find out what spirit is, all they need is to come and look at this here at North Warren," he said. Snyder is the wife of coach Dan Snyder, who led North Warren's soccer team to back-to-back state championships. "I've been a teacher and a guidance counselor at North Warren for almost 30 years," Eileen Snyder said. "North Warren has been my second home, and the students and the staff have been my second family. In all of these years, I have never seen such an outpouring for a cause, any cause." She paraphrased Margaret Mead: "Never underestimate what a small group of committed people can do." "You truly are committed people, you have made a difference," she told students and peers. "Erica and I will never forget this day." Mike Frassinelli covers Warren County. He may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.