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 By Karen Sharpe
Marcia Stankard ’89 had not planned to write a children’s Christmas story. She had been contemplating a self-help book for women friends in times of crisis, but, “in the middle of that, the children’s book wrote itself.”
Stankard, a former marketing executive in Boston, is now a stay-at-home mother—and thankful that her family has been blessed with good fortune and good health.
Life has not been as easy, however, for one of Stankard’s close friends, Elizabeth Stanton Ragnoni ’89. Ragnoni also has three children, but her youngest, Timothy—or “T.J.”—has struggled for the majority of his four-year-old life with treatments for a Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma (“JPA”) brain tumor. JPAs are often called “orphans” in the medical world, since research for JPA is not supported or promoted by a famous celebrity or foundation. Fearing T.J. may run out of time before a cure is found, the Ragnonis have dedicated themselves to raising money for research and have enlisted as many people for their cause as they can.
Including a band of whimsical fictitious children that are the title characters of Stankard’s book, The Spriitelees: A Christmas Tale About Kindness.
Geared toward the preschool-to-kindergarten set, this picture-book story—in which Christmas is in jeopardy because Santa’s elves have come down with the flu—illustrates the importance of acting kindly toward others. Stankard likens this lesson to the Jesuit precept of learning to be a person “for others”—that is reflected in her decision to donate all proceeds from book sales to T.J.’s specific research fund.
“You never know why life unfolds the way it does—I had no idea I would get this far, and I feel very inspired that this is happening,” Stankard says. “I can’t fix T.J., and I can’t find the cure, but I can do this.”
Stankard credits her parents with giving her the confidence to believe that she could accomplish whatever she sets out to do. Self-published, this is Stankard’s first book; she has plans for more Spriitelees stories and products—all of which will be geared toward teaching the importance of helping others, with donations from sales going to charities. Her greatest hope at the moment is that children will be inspired by the Spriitelees to act kindly toward others. An activity page accompanies each book; math and language arts activities for teachers are available on the Spriitelee Web site.
The Spriitelees: A Christmas Tale About Kindness, is available at amazon.com and www.spriitelee.com. All proceeds from amazon.com sales and $5 from each spriitelees.com sale will be donated to T.J.’s fund. More information about the fund may be found at www.teamtj.org.
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