Sales of the book will help researchers fight a kind of cancer that claimed the life of her brother.
WRITTEN BY MIKE URBAN
The story of Katie and the Bumblebee is one that Caitlin Dunion and her brothers heard many times from their grandmother, a homemade tale so entertaining the children even enjoyed acting it out for their parents’ video camera.
So when Caitlin was looking to raise money to fight the terrible childhood cancer that took her younger brother Aidan’s life, she decided to turn that story into a book.
“Aidan liked for me to read to him,” she said. “And he liked this story a lot.”
“Katie and the Bumblebee” was published in late May. Since a donor covered the cost of printing all 1,000 copies, every cent from book sales will go to the Aidan’s Avengers charitable fund named for Aidan Dunion by his parents, Pat and Tara Dunion of Amity Township.
Aidan was 4 when he passed away in 2014 due to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or DIPG, a rare type of pediatric brain cancer that is always fatal, usually within a year.
His parents set up Aidan’s Avengers to raise money to find a cure for DIPG because childhood cancer hasn’t gotten nearly the research funding it deserves, the couple said.
The donations also go to local families of DIPG patients to help cover expenses, such as gas to drive to their many hospital appointments.
Caitlin, 10, wrote the story on her computer, and the book’s illustrator is her aunt, Jennifer Gilroy Schmauk of Glenside, Montgomery County, who in addition to being an artist also provides art therapy to grieving children.
In the book, Katie is picking flowers of all colors to give to her mother when she hears a buzzing bee. She’s scared of bees, so she drops her bucket and runs to her mom. Her mother explains to her that bees help the flowers grow, and that if she doesn’t bother them, they won’t bother her. Katie returns to picking her bouquet, and in the process, learns to not be afraid of bees.
The drawings are colorful and fun, and the characters look a lot like Caitlin and her family, including older brother Ryan, as Schmauk intended. The book even includes a one-eared dog, just like the family’s boxer, Trooper, a skinny cat like the one the family used to have, and a garden like the memorial garden for Aidan in the Dunions’ backyard.
Since gold is the color used to represent the fight to find a cure for childhood cancer, Caitlin requested that her Aunt Jenny weave something gold throughout the book, and she did – the bows in Katie’s hair.
Caitlin said she worked hard to create a book people would enjoy, and so far they do. About 300 have sold already.
And because Caitlin enjoyed the process so much, she’s already planning the sequel, which will feature her other dog, Buzz, and again will benefit Aidan’s Avengers.
