FORT PIERCE, Fla. — She has spent her career helping children and teens succeed and has become a beloved staple at Fort Pierce Central High School.
Vanessa Solomon has been a teacher, a dean and, most recently, a graduation coach.
But her career is on pause as she's now battling metastatic breast cancer, prompting so many in the community to pull together to return the support she has long given them.
"It feeds your soul, it really does," Vanessa Solomon said about her years working with children.
But don't take her word for it. She has photo proof of some of the many students whose lives she's touched.
"Three thousand pictures," she said while picking some of her favorites out of a box. "The very most important thing was to build relationships with the kids. Once we had common ground, there wasn't anything they wouldn't talk to me about, and I mean anything."
Those relationships made her special not only to students, but their families and the staff members she worked with every day.
That's why 2016 was a tough year at the school.
"I always felt I was going to fight this battle," Solomon said. "I never expected it at 39."
Solomon said she has a history of various cancers in her family and had been getting mammograms since she was just a teenager.
In 2016, she was feeling unusual pain and went to her doctor.
"When she scanned over it, I saw it immediately on the screen," Solomon said.
After undergoing an ultrasound, she could see a lump that would give her a breast cancer diagnosis. She was given an aggressive treatment and surgery plan.
"Some days it made me feel really awful, but I knew the kids on campus were watching me," Solomon said. "I cannot tell you how many said to me, 'You're the only person I've ever known that's gone through cancer.' So, I took on that responsibility that I have to show them like you can live and thrive."
Students filled her office with decorations and words of encouragement.
She was honored at homecoming and football games.
The support has also spanned outside of the school. Her husband is a St. Lucie County firefighter and his agency has also done its part to lift her spirits.
"I didn't miss a homecoming or prom at all until last year," Solomon said.
Last school year, nearly six years after her first diagnosis, the cancer spread to her lymph nodes.
"I'm not going to give up," Solomon said. "I'm going to be a part of the 27%. Twenty-seven percent is the survival rate for metastatic breast cancer."
When Solomon felt she could no longer give her all to the students at school, she stepped away. Colleagues, she said, generously donated some of their sick time to her. She is currently on medical leave.
"I'll be back," she said. "I'll be back stronger and healthier."
But in the meantime, the community is again stepping up to help her and her family, including two sons.
The Scott Van Duzer Foundation is hosting a fundraiser this week to make her time away from work a little easier on the family. Solomon has other plans for the donations, too.
"If I can't be on campus helping kids, I want to be able to start a scholarship fund," Solomon said, helping at-risk students who she spent much of her career helping.
She would also like to start her own foundation to help children reach their career goals.
"Maybe I can still help people but in a different way," Solomon said.
She is still looking to make an impact, whether it's with students or other women whom she hopes hear her story.
"If just one person goes to get a mammogram, then I've done my job," Solomon said.
The fundraiser is Wednesday from 4-10 p.m. at Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce. One hundred percent of all food and drink sales, staff salaries and tips will benefit the family.
Community members, business owners and community leaders, including Van Duzer, county Commissioner Sean Mitchell and tax collector Chris Craft are also competing to raise funds.
Solomon will get to shave the person's head who raises the least amount of money.
