BROWNSTOWN, Mich (WXYZ) — Hunter Elementary in Gibraltar Public Schools hosts a school assembly each month. It's a time to talk about goals and how to meet them together. Principal Jenna Mullins calls it the "Hunter Hive."
Generally, those goals are learning-related like reading or behavior goals, but during its most recent assembly the entire school took a moment to celebrate one of their own reaching a different kind of goal; one more than two years in the making.
Five-year-old Delilah reached a milestone she and her family have been working towards since before her third birthday; completing her cancer treatment for Leukemia.
Recently she did just that, and her friends at Hunter wanted to make sure she knew how proud they are of her.
“Cause I finished cancer," Delilah said with a big thumbs up.
Even being so young, she knows what the sound of that ringing bell means; no more needles, tubes, and hospitals.
Mom Chantelle Borawski said this journey has been a difficult one, spending dozens of days in the hospital, and often Delilah got very sick. Her chemo treatments made her lose her hair.
Because Delilah had to leave school sometimes to get her treatments, her teacher and classmates at Hunter learned of her diagnosis and wanted to be there to celebrate her when treatment was finally over.
“And so we bought a giant bell for Hunter, we dedicated it to Delilah," Mullins said. "We wanted to share that celebration. Some things are just too big to be kept in just one classroom.”
Last week Delilah was the star of the school's assembly.
“Every kid and every class had on yellow and gold, they all had on gold beads, they had big posters and signs," Borawski told 7 Action News. “Just having people there for her and put something together like that for her, it was special.”
Gold is the color for childhood cancer. With Hunter's sea of gold in front of her and her friend standing by her side, Delilah made it official.
And while the special bell she used to ring in front of her school is dedicated to her, it will be a permanent fixture at Hunter.
“That bell will hang in our hallways, and teachers and students will ring that bell each time a goal is met," Principal Mullins told 7 Action News.
