There were big floppy hats. Little knit hats. And lots of baseball caps.
There were all kinds of hats — more than 125 — on the heads of the kids and adults at the Denver Athletic Club on Thursday to show love and support for 3-year-old cancer victim Willa Fischer.
Diagnosed in June with a soft-tissue tumor behind her ear, Willa endured six weeks of daily radiation therapy and has begun a weekly regimen of chemotherapy that will last 43 weeks.
Long before she was diagnosed with cancer, Willa was a regular at the DAC’s Childcare Center.
On Thursday her longtime playmates — whom she did not see for three months this summer — welcomed her to the day-care center with a colorful array of hats and caps.
But it was not only the hats worn by the 2- and 3-year-old playmates that greeted Willa, her 18-month-old sister, Harper, and their mom, Stacy Fischer.
The entire staff of the DAC was wearing hats to support Willa and her family.
“I started tearing up,” said Stacy Fischer about the hats she and her daughters saw as they entered the DAC. “It is the most wonderful show of support.”
In the middle of all the hat festivities was Willa, a bundle of energy, who occasionally played with — or fended off — her rambunctious sister.
Willa allowed that she had “40 hats,” which she keeps in a “big box and a drawer.”
The hats cover her small head, which has not a speck of hair on it.
Her mom says Willa is doing well at the Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, primarily because of the staff there.
As part of the tribute to Willa, the children and staff at the DAC not only wore hats but also made $10 donations to the Children’s Hospital pediatric cancer program. Also, the DAC center is accepting new hat donations to the hospital’s cancer center “Hat Rack.”
Children like Willa who are receiving chemotherapy can choose a hat to wear during their treatment.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
