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Girl Uses Loss As Inspiration For Giving

Tribune photo by ANDY JONES

Erin Brown, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Seven Springs Middle School, looks on as her teacher Arlene Martinez talks about an aluminum can collection drive "Cans for Cancer" that Brown initiated at their school. Proceeds from the sale of the cans will be donated to Moffitt Cancer Hospital for cancer research. Brown's dad died of cancer this year, and she is dedicating the project to his memory.

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By RONNIE BLAIR

rblair@tampatrib.com

Published: December 25, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Teacher Arlene Martinez was a bit surprised the day Erin Brown, 13, came to her with an unusual, but touching, request.

Erin planned to collect aluminum cans, sell them to a recycling company and donate the proceeds to H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center as a way to memorialize her father, Don Brown, who died of lung cancer in August.

Erin wondered whether Martinez, her social studies teacher at Seven Springs Middle School, would be willing to turn one girl's mission into a classroom project.

The seventh-grader also asked whether Martinez would let her classroom serve as a storage area for the cans.

Martinez, a proponent of service projects for young people, found inspiration in Erin's willingness to turn her loss into something positive. She said yes.

"I think of a girl losing her dad at such a young age," Martinez said. "She had two choices. She could fight back and make a difference. Or you get swallowed up by the world. I'm inspired by her actions."

Martinez turned the project into a competition among her classes, with the winning class period earning a pizza party. By the time the students were finished, they had collected more than 4,000 cans.

"I didn't think we were going to get a lot," Erin said. "I thought we'd get 1,000; maybe 500."

STR Industrial Steel Distributors agreed to pay 30 cents per pound for the cans, an extra 5 cents over the current price the company is paying. Ralph Palazzolo, company vice president, said he agreed to the higher price when he learned how the money would be used.

Palazzolo said roughly 50 pounds of cans were brought in. While the project might not translate to a huge amount of money, Martinez said it adds to the recycling effort and is for a good cause.

Mostly, the teacher is impressed with the initiative Erin showed during her time of grief.

"I feel her dad is smiling down on her," Martinez said. "I'd be proud of my children if they initiated and did something like this."

Erin said she came up with the can-collecting idea soon after her father died Aug. 5. He had been a patient at Moffitt, though in the last weeks of his life he was under the care of a hospice.

Don Brown, who sold plumbing supplies, spent many hours teaching Erin and her brother, Stevie, how to throw and hit a ball. He coached Stevie in baseball and Erin in softball until one day when he injured his knee while running at a softball practice, she said.

"He was awesome," Erin said. "He was always there. He supported me and my brother in our sports."

She told her mother, Sue Brown, what she planned to do and her mother endorsed the effort.

Though Erin was inspired to dedicate the project to her father's memory, it wasn't always easy for her.

"It's a little emotional," Erin said. "I get sad when I look at all the cans and think they are there for him."

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218.

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