MAGNOLIA, Ark. —Kim Merrell was completing her senior year of college and was a student worker in the Magale Library when she first found out she had breast cancer.
She said she might not have discovered this if it hadn’t been October, breast cancer awareness month, when as a student worker she was assigned to promote awareness in the library.
“I was walking around asking everyone if they had their self exam and they asked me if I had had mine,” she said. “I told them if they would do theirs, I would do mine. If it wasn’t for that reminder to check ourselves, I wouldn’t be here now.”
Merrell was 29 when she was diagnosed and has battled the cancer off and on ever since. But throughout her cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiation, Merrell, now 37, still kept her goals of completing her degrees from Southern Arkansas University. She has earned a bachelors of science and education degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in educational administration and supervision despite her illness.
“When I first found out that I had cancer I thought my life was over and I was angry, but I decided to live my life,” Merrell said. “I was going through chemotherapy fulltime when I graduated with my bachelor’s and when I was going for my master’s degree I was diagnosed again. I continued those classes through chemotherapy.”
Although she had to take a sabbatical from her classes while working on her graduate degree, she eventually got her master’s and further fulfilled her goal of walking to receive her diploma even though she could have used a wheelchair after having to have a hip replacement because of the cancer.
But she didn’t use the wheelchair — she walked.
Earlier this month a fundraiser was held at Southern Arkansas University to help support Kim Merrell and her husband, Kelly Merrell who has been employed with the SAU Physical Plant since May of 1988 and their children, Kevin, 15 and Kacy, 13.
The fundraiser was a hamburger cookout at the Greek Theatre. Members of the SAU family and other friends of the Merrells’ purchased $5 tickets for a lunch with a hamburger, chips, desserts and a drink. While those who could ate outside, those on a tight time schedule were served in a “drive-thru” style by University volunteers.
The $3,200 check was comprised of money made up from lunch ticket sales and another $830 grant donation from Wal-Mart will also be given to the couple, according to La’Tricia Davis, administrative assistant to the vice president for academic affairs and university facilities coordinator.
The check was presented to the Merrells’ this week. Kim Merrell said she was overwhelmed with the generosity of the community and Kelly Merrell pointed out that friends from all over the state of Arkansas supported them in the fundraiser as well as teachers and the principal from the Haynesville Elementary School in Louisiana where his wife taught second grade this past year. He said she wants to return as soon as she is able.
“When I saw the money that was raised I started crying because when you go through a dark period of your life and people do something like that, it gives you hope to live,” Kim Merrell said. “We are so grateful for this gift. It was a humbling experience.”
Organizations that made the fundraiser possible include Sysco of Little Rock, Ark.; Wal-Mart of Magnolia, Ark.; Western Sizzlin of Magnolia, Ark,; Gilchrist Bag Company, Inc., Camden, Ark.; Pizza Place of Benton in Benton, La.; Brookshire’s of Magnola, Ark.; and Aramark on the SAU campus. Volunteers included members of the SAU faculty and staff, including workers from the physical plant and the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority. The sorority members sold tickets for the event, served food on the day of the event and used the day as a philanthropic gesture for their organization.
