The Hawthorn Academy family has rallied around third grade teacher Maggie Licea and her 10-year-old son Jaxen Christensen, a Hawthorn student who is terminally ill.

“It’s a small community, but we’re mighty, that’s for sure,” Hawthorn Academy teacher Alisha George said.

Hawthorn Academy, a free public charter school, has 1,400 students between the two campuses. Colleagues and families from both the West Jordan and South Jordan campuses have donated money, gift cards and meals to the family. To enable Licea and her husband to spend their remaining time with their son at home, teachers have helped facilitate substitute teachers and donated their PTO days to supplement Licea’s FMLA time off.

“We’ve had people help—from people that are really close to her at school to people who just know her in passing and just know her by her name—I mean, she’s still one of us, and we just want her to feel completely surrounded with support while she goes through something so unimaginable,” George said.

In late January, George and her two sisters Autumn Brown and Amber Walker who also teach at Hawthorn Academy, organized a community fundraiser to benefit the Licea-Christensen family.

“It started out as just kind of a yard sale/bake sale, and then it just kind of took off,” George said. “We had people reaching out from all walks of life—just so many people rallied around to offer things and donate things. It was the most amazing outreach I’ve ever been a part of.”

There were Nintendo switches, and brand new TVs donated. The school custodian donated a moped. Dominoes and Massage Envy donated gift cards. Brennen Woodward with Blue Gecko Apparel printed T-shirts with Jaxen’s favorite animal, a squirrel, which has become a symbol of support among his friends and family. People sold baked goods, jewelry, new and used household items with all proceeds going to the family.

“Seeing everybody’s tiny little bit that they could turn into something so big and amazing was just awesome,” Hawthorn Academy staff member Halley Miranda said. “Because when you confront something so huge, seeing all those little, tiny bits of help that each individual could provide add up to something equally huge was really amazing.”

The event raised $14,300 for the family.

“The fundraiser eased our minds and made it possible for us both to be at home with him the last months of his life,” Licea said.

Through Make-A-Wish Foundation and a leukemia foundation, the Licea-Christensen family has traveled to Disneyland and Hawaii in the last few months.

“They’re just doing everything to make sure that he can have some family experiences and check some things off his bucket list while he’s still feeling good enough to travel,” George said.

George said being able to help her friend has helped her process the situation.

“I needed to throw myself into something so that I wouldn’t spiral with questions and doubts and struggles of why something like this has to happen,” she said. “So it was just awesome to kind of separate ourselves a little bit from it and focus on how we could help ease any burden. Even though we can’t fix anything for them, we can try to help them feel loved and supported and ease some of the financial burden.”

George was proud of the Hawthorn community for rallying to support one of their own. The school community has supported Jax and his two siblings, who all have attended Hawthorn, during Jax’s initial illness, treatments, remission, surgeries and more treatments.

Licea is grateful for everyone’s support.

“To see the community rally around our family during one of the hardest times of our lives made us emotional,” Licea said. “It’s such a bittersweet feeling. Bittersweet because we are losing our child, but we are at the same time grateful for how many humans have shown us love and support. We are a mess, but with the community behind us, we are able to not feel alone in this nightmare.”λ