By Tim Harfmann
Skye Workman is an eighth grader at Saint Bernard Catholic Academy in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn and dedicated to helping cancer patients losing their hair.
“I basically collect fun and new hats to donate to children and adults. When I donate the hats to them, they’re just happy afterwards,” said Skye.
From beanies to baseball caps and cartoon characters to sports teams, Skye collected hundreds of hats and raised one-thousand-dollars to buy more. Everything’s being donated to Cohen Children’s Medical Center and Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Skye does this every year. She even has a foundation called “Skye’s the Limit.”
Claudette Workman is Skye’s mother and said it started when her daughter was in fifth grade. She learned about a Saint Bernard graduate who lost the fight with cancer. “She came home and was curious about cancer. I explained what the disease is and the effects of it. She said, ‘I want to do something to help,” said Workman.
Then, Skye’s best friend experienced tragedy when her sister died from cancer. “Automatically, I was there for her. I understood what she was going through because a couple of years before that, my aunt had been diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Skye.
The act of helping others is a foundation of the learning experience at Saint Bernard Catholic Academy. “We try to follow what Jesus would do, give to the needy, help the poor, help the sick. So, we try to do these fundraisers as often as we can,” said Gail Gibbons. She’s a teacher at the Bergen Beach school.
“It doesn’t matter how young you are. You can still help others,” said Skye.
Cancer is all too common in the United States. The National Cancer Institute estimates one-in-three Americans will contract the disease at some point in their lives.