By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

“Bayanihan” — it’s a Filipino term that describes the culture’s spirit.

“It’s just like in a football game, like a big crowd rallying behind you,” Joy Leaming, of Lebanon, said. “It explains the team spirit of Filipinos.”

About 75 people were an exhibit of bayanihan Saturday morning as they rallied for 5-year-old Mikayla Bassett, a Webb City girl who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in July. Family friends organized a 5-kilometer walk at Landreth Park to benefit Mikayla, who is preparing for a bone-marrow transplant next month.

Leaming said the Filipino community — Mikayla is half-Filipino — is like a family in the way they support each other.

“That’s the Filipino spirit,” she said. “But I guess that’s not just the Filipino spirit, it’s humanity. You want to show support in any way.”

Leaming said she made the two-hour drive to Joplin on Saturday morning to offer emotional, spiritual and financial support for the Bassett family.

“This has been really personal to me, too, because I have a boy the same age as Mikayla,” Leaming said. “It kind of hits home.”

For Sen Marteja, of Joplin, it was no surprise that the event attracted so many members of the Filipino community.

“When you’re a friend, we treat you as family,” Marteja, who has known the Bassetts for about five years, said of her culture.

Grace Aquino, of Joplin, said that is particularly true in times of trouble.

“You can see that we Filipinos, we unite each other,” she said.

Michael Bassett, Mikayla’s father, came to the benefit Saturday along with his grandparents and several of his aunts, uncles and cousins.

The rest of the Bassett family, including Mikayla, was at home in Webb City. Because of Mikayla’s upcoming transplant, which is scheduled for Nov. 10, she is confined to the house, as is her younger brother Malachi, who is her donor, Bassett said.

Coming home is a special treat for Mikayla, who has been at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City since July, Bassett said.

“Whatever Mikayla blurts out she wants, we try to do that,” he said of his daughter’s weekend at home. “Last night at about 11 p.m., she decided she wanted a movie, so we had to find someplace that was open.”

The family will stay in Webb City until Tuesday. Mikayla will then go back to Children’s Mercy Hospital for four days of radiation and three days of chemotherapy. Her family will go with her; last week they moved temporarily to a Ronald McDonald House in Kansas City.

But Bassett said Mikayla is currently enjoying her time with her siblings, Damien, 13, Darian, 10, and Malachi, 1. Because of a new policy at Children’s Mercy that prohibits anyone younger than 18 from entering, Mikayla will be able to talk to them over the next few months primarily through an electronic chat system.

Depending on her health, she could also get daily temporary releases that would allow her to visit her family at the Ronald McDonald House, Bassett said.

Bassett said he expects Mikayla to stay in the hospital for about 100 days following the transplant, which doctors ordered to try to reduce the risk that her leukemia will come back.

Mikayla’s leukemia is currently in remission, Bassett said. If she is still leukemia-free in five years, she will likely be diagnosed as cured, he said.

Erin Norris, of Webb City, said she knew of the Bassetts through a friend who worked at Busy Bee Academy, where Mikayla went to preschool. She doesn’t know the family personally, but she felt compelled to come to Saturday’s benefit, said her father, John Norris.

“She’s got a real soft heart,” Norris said of his 20-year-old daughter. “She loves children.”

Norris said he decided to join his daughter for the morning because he had the week off of work.

“I thought this would be a great time for us to do something together,” he said.

Several co-workers of Rea Bassett, Mikayla’s mother, also attended to show their support, including Kathy Sills, of Baxter Springs, Kan., and Stacey Barnett, of Joplin.

“We want Mikayla and Rea to know that we’re thinking about them and praying for them,” Sills said. “That’s why we’re here.”



Online journey

Follow Mikayla and her family’s journey online at http://mikaylasfight.blogspot.com.