Photo By: Lindsay Wilson
SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Tuesday, June 18, Maple Ave. students gathered to celebrate the 14th birthday of their classmate who is battling leukemia.
Teagan Klingenberg, born with down syndrome and later diagnosed with leukemia, recently relapsed and as a result, her friends and classmates decided to shower her with love and support by acknowledging her birthday as “Teagan Day.” Four of her classmates joined together to raise funds for Klingenberg and organize this special day.
“We just love Teegan so much. The whole school does so when we heard that she was in this situation it was kind of a no brainer to do something to help her,” said Carly Fay.
“We learned that she had a relapse of leukemia in November and we were all heartbroken because we hate to see her have to go through this,” said Ella Fignar.
The students ran bake sales, designed and sold T-Shirts at $15 apiece; over 500 shirts were sold.
“Teegan’s favorite color is red and then the ribbon for leukemia is orange. That’s why we have the color scheme red and orange,” said Autumn Burch.
The front of the shirt reads “No one fights alone,” while the back reads “Team Teagan.” Her friends wanted to let anyone who sees the shirts know that they are all fighting with Teagan.
“It (Tegan Day) went better than I expected personally because even if people did not wear shirts, they wore red to support her,” said Jessye Connors. While Klingenberg spent most of the day at home, her friends continued to send her pictures, videos, and messages of support, so that she could continue to celebrate her birthday with her Maple Ave. Community.
