Breen Elementary community turns out for Jared

Parents, children and teachers showed up Thursday evening at Breen Elementary School to raise money for Jared Pagett, a 9-year-old student recently diagnosed with leukemia.Approximately $5,291 was raised at the hastily planned event, which organizers say brought in more than 70 families."I don't know anyone in this area whose kids go to Breen who's not going to be there, unless they're going to be out of town," said Claudine Adame, one of the evening's organizers, before the event.Jared had almost finished fourth grade at Breen Elementary - where he skipped a grade - when he was diagnosed in May with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.His teacher this year, Rebecca Cihak, along with his first-grade teacher Kristie Sgambati came up with the idea for a benefit event just three days before school ended."They're a wonderful family, and we just want to do all that we can to help them," Sgambati said. "We wish we could do more. I feel like it's so insignificant."Jared was initially admitted to the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento just before he was diagnosed in May. He's been home for only one day since then before being re-admitted to the hospital."Ideally in a perfect world, he wouldn't have been here this whole time," said his mother, Carmen Pagett. "It's just a matter of how you respond to treatment - and unfortunately, Jared's just really struggled." In order to have one parent by his side in the hospital at all times, Carmen Pagett has scaled back her job at Forum Consultants, Inc. to part-time. Jared's father, Eddie Pagett, works for Intel and has been able to find a more flexible work schedule."We've pretty much the last five weeks been very much in crisis mode," Carmen Pagett said. "We've just been so overwhelmed every day with each new thing. ... You do whatever you've got to do."She said the family is trying to learn what his "trends" are, how his body responds to different types of treatment.So far he's had four rounds of chemotherapy, along with several blood and platelet transfusions. She anticipates his treatment could take up to three years."Today he is doing really well. He's playing games and wishing his friends would call and sometimes come down and play games with him," Carmen Pagett said Friday. "It's been a roller coaster ride. ... Every day you're thankful when you have a good day."On days when he's feeling better, his mom said that the hospital has an XBox and Game Cube that he can play - since he loves video games.Skyler Osborn was at Thursday's event and said he used to play an online game called Toontown with his classmate almost every day. He hasn't seen Jared in person - or online, as his alter ego "Sir Bonkersmackerdoodle" - since he was first diagnosed."It's not the same," Skyler said, of playing the game without his friend. He said if he could see Jared that evening, he would say, "I hope you get better. I miss you."