When Life Gets You Down, ‘Sparkle like Sweden’

When Audrie Sorensen, a mom from Escalante, heard the cancer diagnosis for her two-year-old daughter, Sweden, her heart sank. However, she felt very lucky to have her whole community behind her, who in the blink of an eye were already reaching out, praying and making plans for a “Gold game” on December 12 to help with Sweden’s treatments.

Anyone who knows Sweden was instantly on board to help. People in the Escalante community and beyond began spreading the word in any way they could to “sparkle like Sweden.” And she really does sparkle.

Knowing Sweden’s Sparkle

“Sweden is bright, bubbly, happy, friendly, and definitely charming,” her mom said, going on to explain how Sweden can use that charm to get whatever she wants, but also to help others when she knows they need a hug or a laugh.

As any two-year-old would, the little girl has lots of energy, but she also has lots of snuggly love to give. She will snuggle with anything soft, and she loves her animals.

“Overall Sweden loves life, playing in the red dirt, and loves her family. She absolutely sparkles and we are honored to be her parents,” said Audrie.

Receiving a Difficult Diagnosis in a Very Special Place

Though Sweden never lets anything dull her sparkle, it was her dips in energy that started to get her parents worried.

At first Audrie and her husband, Jacob, had attributed Sweden’s symptoms to her lingering cold, which included a cough, tiredness, and decreased appetite. As time went on, though, they began to feel like something else was wrong.

“One Saturday we were working around the yard and noticed she really didn’t want to walk, was moving slowly, and didn’t have as much energy,” said Audrie. “I decided to examine her closely and write down any symptoms I saw that were slightly different about her.”

Upon careful examination, and after the ever-worst-case-scenario Google results showed the symptoms matched with those of Leukemia, Sweden’s parents decided they had better take her to Panguitch to make sure everything was okay. But they never thought it would actually be Leukemia.

“I did request that they run a CBC (complete blood count) test,” said Audrie. “Many of the results from this test came back critical. At this point everything started to move quickly. The doctors in Panguitch were immediately in contact with Primary Children’s Hospital.”

Sweden was later diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow.

“Hearing this diagnosis was shocking and terrifying,” said Audrie. “I know it was a blessing that we were in the Panguitch hospital surrounded by nurses and doctors that we know and love when hearing this life changing news. We were and are in the best of care. There is a different feeling in a small town hospital where the people that are treating and taking care of your little girl are also your friends and neighbors. We will forever be grateful for everyone there that day helping us through.”

Sweden’s family has relocated to Salt Lake City for two and a half years while she goes through treatments. Luckily, her type of cancer has a 95% survival rate. So far, Sweden is responding well, and her family is extremely hopeful that all will turn out okay.

Planning a Gold Game

Sweden’s story quickly spread, and before her family knew it, their friends and extended family were planning a Gold game to help with expenses. Contrary to popular belief, Gold games do not spring to life all on their own. They take a lot of dedicated hard work and effort.

Simone Griffin learned this when she jumped on the committee with Autumn Gleave and Lindsey Lindsay to try to make this happen.

“It’s very overwhelming for me,” she said. “There were so many little things that I didn’t even think of!” Autumn was the real mastermind “running the show and heading everything up,” said Simone.

Autumn, who has had some experience with planning these kinds of events before, thought to reach out everywhere. She reached out to her family in Piute County, she spread the word on social media, she and the other organizers went door-to-door and to local businesses in Escalante, she even got some businesses in Cedar City and out of the state involved.

Coming Together

When it all started to come together, there was lots of coordination required. “I have more spreadsheets for this than for my job!” Simone joked.

In the end, the committee created several ways to help:

• A “Sparkle like Sweden” T-shirt presale raised money and provided gold T-shirts for people to wear at the game.
• The Escalante cheerleaders got on board with Gold accessories and a special cheer for Sweden.
• All proceeds from concessions at the game would be donated.
• The game would include a dinner, bake sale, raffle, and silent auction.

Simone said the silent auction took the most time, but it will pay off. They got so many donations and really cool items that “people should just do their Christmas shopping there,” she said.

All the events at the Gold game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Escalante High School on December 12.

Most of all, everyone was just really impressed with how the whole community came together. The whole 1A region of Southern Utah has a different feel, Simone tried to explain. People from Tropic, Escalante, Marysvale, and even Milford gave so generously to a family they didn’t even know.

If you can do nothing else for Sweden, just “send a quick prayer. That’s why we’re doing this,” said Simone. “I don’t care who the people are, but if this will help alleviate some of that burden, I am more than happy — everyone in the community is more than happy — to help.”

– by Abbie Call

Feature image caption: People all over Southern Utah changed profile pictures on social media to spread the message to “Sparkle like Sweden.” Courtesy of Autumn Gleave via Facebook.

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