Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LAKELAND SHORES, Minn. (AP) — Wearing headphones and standing at a microphone in a recording studio in West Lakeland Township, Gracie Bancroft channeled her inner Katy Perry.
The 10-year-old Afton girl said she felt like the pop singer as she and other students from Afton-Lakeland Elementary School in Lakeland Shores recorded a song she helped write. The song, "Dear Taysha," is a musical get-well message to classmate Taysha Hein, who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
"Dear Taysha / Another day at school / We're all thinkin' about you / Not a whole lot's changed, math and reading's the same ... / We had a birthday or two / We miss your colorful style / And your beautiful smile / So we all got together, to sing you a letter / Haven't seen you in a while."
Taysha, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, is being treated at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis and has missed more than a month of school.
Her classmates in 45 Express — the school's combined fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms — wrote "Dear Taysha" with Nashville songwriter Jeff Dayton, who was at the school last month for a two-week songwriting residency. Taysha listened to the song via Skype during a concert on Dayton's last day at the school.
"I started crying because it made me so happy," Taysha told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/1D9POe0 ). "It was nice and beautiful and thoughtful."
But Dayton, who grew up in Orono, Minnesota, wasn't finished.
When he returned to Nashville, he asked some musician friends — friends who normally work for Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Mel Tillis and the Montgomery Gentry band — to record the music he had composed for the song.
"People care. Musicians really have big hearts, especially when it comes to kids," Dayton said. "It's part of sharing who we are by being able to give back like this. We're blessed with a great life, and when an opportunity like this comes along, the answer is an automatic 'Yes.'"
Dayton is a great-great-grandson of Dayton's department store founder George Dayton and a second cousin of Gov. Mark Dayton. He has worked with country greats such as Glen Campbell, Kenny Chesney and Buck Owens. George Strait recorded one of his songs.
He also is a longtime friend of 45 Express teacher Lois Sortedahl and her musician husband, Gary Lopac.
The trio worked with Joe Schertz, owner of the School of Music and Mayhem in West Lakeland Township, who donated his time on a recent Friday to record the students' voices and add them to the track. The song is available on iTunes; proceeds will be used to defray Taysha's medical bills.
Schertz, who worked with Zach Sobiech, the Lakeland teenager who wrote and recorded the hit song "Clouds" before he died of osteosarcoma in May 2013, said he was happy to help.
"Music is a gift, and if I can return it, and pay it forward, wonderful," Schertz said.
During the two-hour recording session, Schertz worked the sound board as Casey Barker, the school's music teacher, directed the students. The students sang in shifts — seven or eight at a time — around two microphones.
"Boy, you guys are good," Schertz said. "When you sang it loud and proud, it sounded great. That was perfect."
One of the singers was Taysha's good friend Thomas Weispfenning, who was sporting an extremely short haircut. Thomas shaved his head as soon as he heard Taysha had lost her hair because of chemotherapy.
"She is the only friend I have who has stuck with me since kindergarten," said Thomas, 10, a fourth-grader. "I want to do whatever I can to help her."
Thomas said the lyrics of the song describe Taysha perfectly:
"You've got a generous heart / We think you're super, super smart / You're kind to everyone, no matter what they've done / You're a super, super star"
"She is a really good friend to everyone," Thomas said. "She never gives up. She will do anything for anyone. She is kind to everyone. No matter what they have done to her — she is kind to them, no matter what."
Taysha, who lives in Lake St. Croix Beach, began feeling sick in late January. Her grandmother, Kathy Hein, thought it was a recurrence of the flu, which had kept Taysha out of school for two weeks in December.
Her doctors at Stillwater Medical Group sent her by ambulance to St. Paul Children's Hospital when she started having problems breathing, Hein said.
Blood tests showed that Taysha had acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow. She was transferred to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, Hein said.
Students, staff and parents at Afton-Lakeland rallied around Taysha after her diagnosis Feb. 3. They raised money for a laptop computer so Taysha could Skype with her classmates and keep up with her studies. They are organizing a blood drive in her honor, and Principal Tom Hobert shaved his head in solidarity.
"Everyone is so moved by Taysha and her story," Hobert said. "There has been this swell of community support, and it just keeps snowballing. The (students) are learning about how a community can rally around a family that is in crisis and supporting a classmate in whatever ways they can — whether it's writing a note, sending a card, doing a visit or sending money or shaving your head."
Hein adopted Taysha eight years ago; Taysha's father, Jason Hein, died unexpectedly three years ago.
"Taysha has never felt like she had a lot of friends, so this has brought out so much support in her little pals that I didn't think she knew she had," Hein said. "It really has touched her deeply. It's a wonderful, wonderful school."
Taysha, who is in the school choir and loves to sing, said it's "really cool" to have a pop song written about herself.
Taysha's favorite subjects are math and reading. She likes to play basketball, swim, go fishing, draw and kayak. She loves animals and is missing her five dogs — Labradors named Chase and Rose, pugs named Lily and Milo and a French bulldog named Molly.
But her classmates have sent all sorts of cards, posters and presents, including stuffed animals and a terrarium.
Her goal is to get better so she can leave the hospital and add to her menagerie. Her grandmother has promised that once she is home for good, she can get two guinea pigs.
"That's her happy-focus goal," Hein said. "She's been reading books about guinea pigs for the last six months. I told her, 'You fight your battle. You focus on getting healthy, and then you get your guinea pigs.'"
Taysha is counting the days. Doctors say she could be done with her current treatment in June.
She doesn't have names picked out yet.
"I have to wait and see their personalities," she said. "I'm very excited to get out of here, so I can get my new pets."
___
Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
An AP Member Exchange shared by the St. Paul Pioneer Press
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
