County Community Rallies Behind Kenna Cares Bags to Keep Young Cancer Patient’s Memory Alive

Makenna (Kenna) Ward was a rock star in her community, says her father Kirk Ward. Everywhere she went, whether in the Greater Houlton area or at one of several hospitals across Maine and New England, people knew of her and her story. She was just six-years-old when she succumbed to the cancer she fought so gallantly for most of her young life, but her family and the community who loved her so much while she was with them are continuing her legacy in the one way they know would have made Kenna most proud – by giving to others.

Kenna’s father said despite her years of visiting doctors and experiencing challenges like losing her hair, Kenna never identified herself as a cancer patient.

“Kenna was affectionate, a cheerleader for her older sister (Felicity) and younger brother (Blake), serious none of the time, stubborn, gentle and caring, a blessing, a teacher, and a definition of life,” said Kirk. “Other than she having no hair, and from time to time she had tubes sticking out of her body, she was a typical four-, five- and six-year-old.”

Doctors diagnosed Kenna with Neuroblastoma Cancer when she was just 22 months old. She managed to go into remission for about 13 months, but when the cancer returned, even experimental, aggressive treatments were unable to stop it.

“When it comes back the second time, it’s extremely hard to fight it off,” explained Kirk. “We tried many new ways of battling cancer. Once, after a high dose radiation treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital, we couldn’t touch or hold or hug her for a good week. We tried holistic, we tried everything to save our daughter. She fought and she fought hard.”

As Kenna’s primary caregiver, her mother, Amy Ward, devoted all of her time and energy to seeing her daughter through rigorous chemo treatment schedules, radiation, blood transfusions, surgeries, stem cell recoveries, traveling to appointments and specialized care even while at home. She lived for making her family feel as normal as possible through such a difficult time.

“I’m so proud of my wife who kept track of everything. This woman is truly my hero,” says Kirk.

So, when one night MaKenna told her mom she wanted to help other kids, and asked her how she might be able to do that, Amy and Kirk promised her they would think of some way to accomplish her goal. Unfortunately, Kenna passed away in December of 2013, her goal still unrealized. That’s when her parents decided to honor their daughter’s wishes by creating a lasting legacy that would help other childhood cancer patients.

Since then, they’ve chosen several ways to do just that, including donations to Diamond Blackfan Anemia to honor a dear friend Kenna made during her treatments who suffered from that disease, and to CureSearch for Childhood Cancer. Each summer, since even before Kenna’s passing, the Wards have raised money for both of those causes by organizing a Miracle Mile run/walk in downtown Houlton. They’re also in the process of establishing a scholarship fund in Kenna’s memory that they will award to a graduating senior at Hodgdon or Houlton High School who plans to pursue an education in nursing and who demonstrates an exemplary aptitude to succeed in the nursing profession. In fact, the Wards are planning a fundraiser dinner, complete with live music and a silent auction, on March 28 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Elk’s Club in Houlton to raise money for the Makenna Ward Scholarship Fund for Nursing.

“We’re very excited that we have so many different ways to give back and honor Makenna,” said Kirk.

Perhaps the most rewarding and direct way the Wards have found to give back, however, is with a project they have named Kenna Cares Bags. Just a couple of months after Kenna’s passing, and just as her parents were searching for ideas on how to fulfill their daughter’s dream to help people, Sarah Estabrook and Amber Brown, a couple of young women from the community, approached them with the perfect concept. Brown worked for Thirty-One, a company with a strong reputation for giving and who sells bags and purses of varying sizes. Understanding the challenges travel and boredom present, along with the need for small emotional distractions while seeking treatment for cancer, the idea was to fill these bags with meaningful items that would make life easier, and perhaps offer some comfort to cancer patients during a trying time.

“It’s become quite popular, which is what we wanted it to become,” said Kirk. “The items are anything from blankets to chapsticks, coloring books, baseball caps, crayons, for the older ones - ITunes cards. Lotions are big, especially in treatment because you tend to dry out a lot. We’ve had a lot of parents say the bag itself is handy for travel because they’re good sized bags. The bag is chalk full of the essentials for cancer treatment - something that can take their mind off of cancer for a short period of time. A treatment can last a couple of hours, so to give them something to color or put together – like Legos – it makes them feel normal, which is how they want to be treated.”

The idea blossomed, and in the first year, the Wards, with the help of their community and donors, were able to fill and distribute more than 70 bags to the Lafayette Family Cancer Center in Brewer along with pediatric hospitals like Boston Children’s and pediatric wings at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Maine Medical in Portland and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. The Wards built a Facebook page for the cause and invited people to make donations and follow their progress. This year, they were able to exceed their goal of filling 100 bags by 42. They had so many bags, that they decided to stuff sibling bags as well, remembering that Kenna always had her brother or sister at her side as she went for treatments and recognizing that the siblings of young cancer patients are also affected by the disease.

“This is still really new to us. We’re in the process of pulling together a board of trustees because it’s getting so big, it’s hard to stay ahead of it,” said Kirk. “We’re just really thrilled with all of the followers out there who have jumped on board. Our dining room right now is right full of boxes of goodies - stuffed animals, nail polish, sports figures… It’s a good thing, it’s not a bad thing. There’s just so much of it, we haven’t sat down to have supper at the dining room table in over a month.”

Soon, the Wards are thinking they will have to rent a space to store all of the supplies they’ve received, which they will continue to use to create more and more bags.

“Makenna’s appreciation of finishing something she started was unprecedented. If we stop doing what she started, then we would be limiting her, and we definitely don’t want to limit her. Even though she’s not with us, she always went into everything 100 percent, and she never gave up. So, for us, this is for infinity. We don’t want to give up on something that she felt so adamant about. For us, it’s keeping her memory alive and building her legacy even more,” said Kenna’s father.

Kenna was full of energy, even when she was in the midst of treatments. Her parents are determined to keep that energy going, and their faith in God is helping keep them strong to accomplish just that.

“Whenever she was being treated, it was, ‘Get me the heck out of here, I want to go play.’ I was just so proud of her as her daddy. She was a little superhero – to me and to her friends and to her family. I don’t know how often I prayed. ‘Pray without ceasing’ - we pretty much lived by that. We always had questions - why God? Why us? - but we always stayed faithful. We never gave up hoping for new possibilities.”

“This is something that we want to continue building on, becoming an advocate for childhood cancer awareness. Makenna made such a difference for so many people. Even though she fought cancer and had such a short life, in six years she made such a difference in so many lives. There’s no end in sight,” said Kirk.

Anyone interested in donating can do so by dropping off purchased items at several established drop sites, including the Houlton Wesleyan Church at 18 Kelleran Street in Houlton; the Houlton Elementary School and the Southside School or any schools in SAD 29; the University of Maine at Fort Kent; or, donations can be mailed to the family at 7 Weeks Street, Houlton, Maine 04730; Laura Ward at 7 Mulberry Drive, Presque Isle, Maine 04769; or to Melissa Corbin, 716 Houlton Road, Easton, Maine 04740.