Art project a "Slam Dunk" in diabetic children’s struggle
By Lawrence McCallum
Imagine being a youngster with a major health problem. Besides the physical
challenges from living with a serious illness, such children face emotional
damage from fear, isolation, and the desperate feeling of being an outsider.
Youngsters with diabetes know these feelings all too well, but help is available for them through Slam Dunk for Diabetes, a free summer camp sponsored by the Chicago Bulls Training Academy. The camp provides safety and moral support for young people as they learn to manage their condition while participating in sports.
The Slam Dunk program sought out the expertise of Pilsen artist Anne Farley Gaines, who spearheaded the group creation of a mural related to coping with diabetes. Upon arriving at one of the afternoon Slam Dunk sessions at De La Salle High School, Gaines immediately was struck by the community spirit of all those involved.
“People were smiling and hugging each other and giving encouraging words,” Gaines said. “Diabetes educators and other related personnel were coaching children at the sidelines about proper nutrition and giving them food and drinks appropriate for diabetes following considerable exercise. The director and coaches beamed with pride at what progress the children were making. With this upcoming mural in mind, I took photos of the children playing basketball and sitting with friends and family along the sidelines.”
The resulting mural shows a row of children, their facial features strongly pronounced, standing shoulder to shoulder in a line with coaches and basketball players behind them. A three-dimensional border of vines, flowers, butterflies, birds, fruits, and vegetables protrudes beyond a garden and expresses joy in nature. Woven into the design are the words “The Slam Dunk Kids Facing Diabetes Together.”
“In the final mural there are ten [children] in the front row, all holding basketballs, and five playing basketball,” Gaines explained, noting the mural also shows “the director and two coaches behind the row of children. The many butterflies signify the fragility of the children’s lives and the need to fortify them in all possible ways. Two dear friends of mine who are also artists, Robert Kameczura and Marzena Legowiec, came over one evening, and we had a smashing time making butterflies together.”
A family project
Some families involved in the creation of the mural, such as Emma Villarreal and her daughters, Olivia and Veronica, had worked with Gaines previously on several large murals for an organization called After School Matters. Parents and children whom Gaines had not met previously played key roles as well. The participants emerged as an excited group of collaborators, with Gaines coordinating their efforts.
The first several mural sessions took place on weekends at Chi-Town Futbol in the 2200 and 2300 block of south Throop St., thanks to the generosity of Director Jeff Welsh. The last session before Gaines finished the mural alone took place in February in the artist’s upstairs studio in her Victorian house in Pilsen.
Through the project, “I feel that I have made many new friends,” Gaines said. “They were easy to work with and very eager to do whatever tasks were assigned. The first session began literally with a blank white slab of plywood fortified by a bracing made with furring strips.
“One of the coaches named Ed and his fiancée helped to prime the plywood,” Gaines went on. “While I labored to cut out the border with the jigsaw, the children, their siblings, and parents drew and cut out shapes of various imagery, such as fruits, vegetables, and vines using x-acto knives, scissors, and museum board.”
Gaines especially enjoyed the group work sessions. “It was touching to witness the families sharing ways that they coped with their children’s diabetes,” she said. “They shared diet plans, pertinent medical information, and ways their lifestyles changed after finding out their children had special needs.”
Other participants shared Gaines’ sentiments, including volunteer Maribeth Coffey-Sears, an artist, art teacher, and mother of four whose son Dylan is among the students depicted in the mural. “When Dylan was diagnosed with diabetes, the doctor and nutritionist suggested the camp for him,” Coffey-Sears explained. “There is good contact with other children who suffer from the same illness. They feel more normal and are no longer frightened.”
Normal lives
Kathy Kobiernicki and her daughter, Bridget, enjoy the spirit of sharing and sense of unity among Slam Dunk families. Kobiernicki said, “Ordinary people are brought together by the disease itself. They meet others who deal with diabetes in different ways. Monica Joyce started the camp and, in many ways, it is like any other summer camp except that the kids who participate have a special problem. There is the monitoring of glucose and other necessary medical functions. But other kids know that my daughter is normal. Any of them can have normal lives, play basketball, and do so much else.”
Bridget was diagnosed with diabetes in April 2007. “It wasn’t possible to consider a YMCA camp since proper facilities were lacking,” Kobiernicki said. “In contrast, the Slam Dunk camp was very accommodating, and she wouldn’t be left out of any activities.”
“The camp is fun,” Bridget Kobiernicki said. “They’re teaching you about your body and health. Things have turned out well, and I’ve gained confidence in myself.”
Gaines’s last work session on the mural lasted nearly 18 hours with no break. She finished at 5 a.m. on April 14, elated and knowing she gave the product all of the love, healing intentions, and positive, happy touches possible.
In a last-minute decision, she included student Nathan Santiago by painting him as one of the children in the far distance. She remembered how hard he and his sister had worked on the mural and how his mother, Joanne, a grade school teacher, had helped place the blue ribbons at regular intervals on the back of the structure and brought her husband, her mother, and her husband’s parents to work on the project also. One of Nathan’s grandmothers had made the three-dimensional grapes on the right-hand side of the mural.
Gaines looks forward to the June fundraiser for Slam Dunk, when organizers will present the mural to the families; they will present it to Mayor Richard M. Daley at a future occasion.
The Slam Dunk for Diabetes will be held Sunday, June 8, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Rumba Restaurant, 351 W. Hubbard St. Festivities includes an auction featuring art and other collectibles and a sit-down dinner of Puerto Rican delicacies. For information on the event or about Slam Dunk, call Monica Joyce at (773) 636-3353.
