Tracy Coats holds up boxing gloves, a symbol of her ongoing battle against cancer. (Contributed photo)Parents pulling up to Ooltewah Middle School on Oct. 17 may have been surprised to find a mass of pink ribbons decorating the building. But no one was more surprised than OMS Band Director Tracy Coats.
“I was just absolutely overwhelmed,” she said. “I kind of just burst into tears when I walked up the sidewalk.”
A month earlier, Coats had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, but that Tuesday, students and teachers rallied together to deliver a clear message: “You don’t have to fight alone.”
When Coats approached the building that morning – the day before her first chemotherapy treatment – she found that message of solidarity everywhere.
In addition to pink ribbon strung up from the door to the surrounding trees, she also found encouraging messages like “I pink I can, I pink I can” displayed on the school’s electronic sign, and she was led to a pep rally where she found all the teachers and about one-third of the students wearing pink T-shirts.