Ironworkers Immortalize Kids

Children who receive treatment for cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are receiving a special treat while construction goes on outside. Children write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the window. Then ironworkers erecting the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care paint the names on steel beams and hoist them into place.
The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic - Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.

A similar project was carried out in 1996 when the Smith Research Laboratories were built. A movie was made at that time to raise money for The Jimmy Fund.
Yesterday, crawling on their stomachs in the bitter cold and whipping winds, the ironworkers looked down at the latest batch of names posted in the walkway window. Looking up at them were Kristen and her sisters, Cathryn, 5, and Hannah, 3, who have been accompanying her to chemotherapy. They pointed as the ironworkers painted the girls' names onto the side of a 4-ton I-beam and hoisted it on to the seventh floor.

"She'll always be a piece of this building, which is a good feeling to have," Elizabeth Hoenshell said, holding Kristen. "They don't have to do this, the guys. They could just do their job and do a good job at it and give us a building that we can get treatment at, but they go the extra step and that's huge."

Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -via Metafilter

See a video from the earlier project, but have your hankie ready. Link

(image credit: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Comments (8)

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Newest 5 Comments

Oh, yes, I'm from the Boston area and every summer for years they play that video before movies and then people go around and collect donations. Seriously, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
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My wife is recovering from breast cancer and all the different treatments involved. She just finished the "final" stage of reconstruction. I think this is a great idea. Congratulations to the people doing it.
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I guess I am tHe only one who thought of Mrs. crabtree from South Park, episode City on the Edge of Forever. Where the bus goes over a waterfall.
B.S.M.W.E.Y.
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Well the two guys on top can jump off quickly but I hope the driver has the window wound down or else he will end up with a terminal wound.
See what water can do to horseless carriages here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY
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Man, my heart just stopped. I'm not sure if they're all lucky or stupid or both or what. Well, they are lucky they didn't go tumbling down the river.
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@ Larfin Jackarse - that little window on the drivers side is not going to do much of anything in the event the bus goes over.  It is a slider type window and very small. Opposite of that the other side there is the service door, which is only locked by a small latch that can be flipped open by a thumb. The windows on school busses are made to be able to be kicked out, in the event of an emergency, and other means of egress are not available.
So if that bus went over, the first thing that would happen would be the roof might crumple, but not too much because there is some support. then the windows would probably bust out if it was to roll over and it was hit by rocks, branches, people..etc... Closing the window is pointless.

You can drive a school bus through water. A "safe" limit would be if the water is not moving faster that 8 ft a second, and the water level is no higher than 2feet. I put safe in quotes, because you really cannot gauge the speed of the water. IMO trying to traverse a flooded roadway, when you cannot see what is under the water, is just dangerous.

The two guys on top are spotters. The driver did not go across completely "blind".  You can see the two individuals in the second video, on the roof of the bus that was waiting to cross  the opposite direction. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZAs0BL_5Qs&feature
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@ Mad Molecule-No. That is a "chicken bus". Central and South America are where old school busses go to die. Here in the US many school busses are not allowed to operate after a certain amount of mileage is on them. Many end up "south of the border" where they continue life as a form of public transportation.
Wiki "chicken bus" to learn more.
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