Posted on Sun, Oct. 7, 2007

Used with permission of THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.

Monica Yant Kinney | So many care so much
By Monica Yant Kinney

Inquirer Columnist

My renewed faith in humanity sits in a cardboard box on a banker's desk in Chestnut Hill.
Sorry to be so dramatic, but the donation of $86,093.08 by 923 Inquirer readers (and one generous foundation) to help a toddler from Grenada get surgery in Philadelphia will soften any cynic.

I'm actually tearing up as I type. This is what I get for writing about an innocent, for a change.

In the box are hundreds of cards and letters from strangers who read my Sept. 12 column about Kassiha Francis, a 17-month-old who wants desperately to walk, if only her body will let her. Her right leg is a mass of abnormal blood vessels, weighing her down like an anchor.

Money poured in from nearly every zip code in the region and from as far away as Britain. The largest single reader gift? A $2,000 check. The smallest? A $5 bill.

The biggest envelope held $100, a butterfly activity book, a dozen No. 2 pencils, paper, envelopes, and stamps from a fourth grader hoping to become Kassiha's pen pal once her right leg is amputated and she returns to the Caribbean.

A Chester County real estate agent who recently filed for bankruptcy as a result of his own health woes scraped together $25 for a little girl worse off than he.

"We are a giving society" was how Paul Geary, of Exton, explained it.

Stephanie Haase, a marketing consultant from Gulph Mills, donated with Kassiha's future in mind, saying, "I hope she is one day able to dance at her own wedding."

Normadene Murphy, a supervisory agent with the Department of Justice in Philadelphia, gave $50, saying, "I will never take my health and ability to move at will for granted again."

On Monet cards and teddy bear stationery, readers relayed that they were inspired to give "a little something" but wished they could do more.

Little somethings add up. As of Friday, Kassiha's medical fund held $61,093.08.

An additional $25,000 was sent directly to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by the First Hand Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.

"This one wasn't debated much," said Mary Nelson, a case manager at the foundation, which learned of Kassiha's condition from medical workers in Philadelphia. "We could see she had great need."

Jeanette Francis, Kassiha's mother, is amazed so many were moved by a child they've never met.

"I would like to say thanks to the public," she told me last week.

"I never, ever expected a response like this. People here really have a heart."


Doing their part
The chronology of compassion goes like this:
Sept. 7: Chiron Thompson opens Kassiha's account at the Chestnut Hill branch of National Penn Bank with $400 of his own money.

Thompson is the public-school teacher and pastor hosting Kassiha and Jeanette at his family's Germantown home. I met them after learning about the story from Elaine Simmons, a member of Thompson's congregation at the Reformed Episcopal Church of the Messiah.

"Even making my least [salary] here, I am still doing better than anyone there," Thompson, a native of Grenada who is now a U.S. citizen, told me last month, explaining why he felt "obligated" to bring Kassiha to America when his students and congregants have needs of their own.

"Here, there is always hope."

Sept. 12: My column runs, telling readers that Kassiha suffers from Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, a rare tumor of blood vessels that can lead to death by sepsis if not properly treated. In photos taken by my colleague David Warren, readers saw a bright-eyed girl with pigtails, a yellow sundress, and one enormously deformed leg.

Amputation, a prosthesis and physical therapy are what's needed to get Kassiha walking, I wrote, but at Children's Hospital, the surgery alone will cost $81,000. It's a long shot, but Thompson starts fund-raising.

Sept. 13: Marianne Gannon thinks she has been given someone else's mail.

"Tellers were getting emotional reading the notes," the bank branch's assistant manager recalled. "It literally took us over an hour to open everything."

By day's end, Kassiha's account reaches $10,000.

Sept 14: The fund has more than doubled, to $22,000.

Sept 18: The fund has doubled again, to $44,000.

Sept. 21: The $50,000 mark is broken, to branch manager Daniel Cuneo's amazement.

"I've never seen anything like it," said the banker, who did his part by e-mailing the appeal to all 1,250 employees in the company.

Sitting in Cuneo's office, I open hundreds of envelopes from people seeking no acknowledgment for their gesture.

"Our daughter had Hodgkin's as a child and breast cancer as a young woman," a Harleysville mother wrote. "I know the feelings of being helpless and looking at your sick child with an uncertain future."

"It's the first day of the Jewish New Year," a donor from West Chester said in her note. "I am reminded how lucky I am."


Scrubbing in
So what happens now that my readers have, essentially, prepaid for Kassiha's surgery? When will she get it?
How does a week or two sound?

John Dormans, chief of orthopedics at Children's Hospital, will operate as soon as possible, said the hospital's acting chief operating officer, Madeline Bell. He already has ordered special equipment needed to limit bleeding during the amputation.

Afterward, Kassiha will learn to move without her limb. Then she'll be fitted for the first of many prosthetic legs she'll need as she grows.

"This is a very unique opportunity to help a child," said Bell, who has also been deluged by people on Kassiha's behalf.

"I'm shocked by the response," she admitted. "There are so many children in need."

But the name and face of this one moved the masses, just as Thompson hoped they would.

"This isn't just news," he said, gratefully. "It is the story of compassion."



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Monica Yant Kinney | To Donate
Donations for Kassiha Francis' continuing care may be sent to the Kassiha Francis Medical Fund in care of National Penn Bank, 9 W. Evergreen Ave., Philadelphia 19118.



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Contact Monica Yant Kinney at myant@phillynews.com or 215-854-4670. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney.