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The standard cliche for school communities is that they are a family. One local school, however, has drawn closer to offer emotional and financial support for its sick students and staff.

Laura Arp, a kindergartner at Montvale Elementary School, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in 2007. A guidance counselor, custodian, teacher's assistant and lunch lady at the school have also been diagnosed with cancer this year.

"It's hit home a lot at Montvale. This is a great school, and we're very proud of our school. We're a family," said Laura's mother, Angie Arp.

"Since cancer affects everybody in some way, I thought we could pitch in and help. Maybe one day we'll find a cure," said teacher Jennifer Graves.

The Arps' church, Old Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church, sponsors Laura's Relay for Life team. Angie Arp and Graves created a school fundraising event last year to raise money for Team Laura.

Only Montvale's kindergarten classes raised money last year. Officials opened it up to the entire school this year, and students and staff members raised nearly $2,460 for Team Laura.

"A lot of people have been laid off. It's kind of humbling," Angie Arp said about this year's collections.

One student in Graves' kindergarten class, Tyler Martin, raised $150 for Team Laura. Martin, who sits beside Laura in their classroom, went to businesses and homes with a flyer that detailed his classmate's fight with cancer.

When asked about the flyer, the boy said he couldn't read most of it and later said he didn't know what cancer was. He instead talked about Laura and "the sickness."

Laura is his friend because she smiles, he said. "She's one of the nicest people I've ever met," he said. "Me and her are the nicest people in school. We're good to people."

Weeks in hospital

Laura has spent many weeks in the hospital and had to be pulled out of kindergarten last year. She has had three blood transfusions, two platelet transfusions, four bone marrow biopsies and 13 spinal tap chemotherapy treatments.

Laura undergoes intrathecal (IT) chemotherapy procedures at home every day, and she visits East Tennessee Children's Hospital once a month for additional chemo treatments.

"She's been through a lot," Graves said. "Her being a kid, there was many days that she didn't want to come to class."

"She has bone pain all the time, and there has been many days when she has made herself go to school," Angie Arp said. "She loves school and wants to be a normal kid." During the school year, Graves said Laura would sometimes feel bad and lie on her rest mat until she felt better. The kindergartner would then get up and start going again, she said.

'The magic rub'

Graves would also sometimes rub Laura's back, stomach or whatever else was hurting her, and the kindergartner told Graves that she had "the magic rub" to stop her pain.

"She'll always have a special place in my heart," Graves said. "I had her sister five years ago. I had Laura last year, and I'm lucky enough to have her again this year."

Laura's mother said she hopes scientists will one day be able to find a cure for cancer.

"You go up to the hospital and see so many kids that are so sick. Those little kids become your family.

"You worry about the others as much as your own. I check them out on caringbridge.org every day to see how they're doing."

During Laura's battle with cancer, she has lost four friends her own age to cancer.