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UA To Study Parents of Children With Cancer, Spring Break on Alabama's Gulf Coast

Doster Hall, home of the University of Alabama's College of Human Environmental Sciences.
Doster Hall, home of the University of Alabama's College of Human Environmental Sciences.

A new study at the University of Alabama is looking to study parents of children who have cancer.

The research is being conducted by the College of Human Environmental Sciences to see how parents of a child with cancer react while the child is going through treatment.

Dr. Sherwood Burns-Nader is heading up the study. She feels this survey can help future parents cope better with the process.

“And I just wanted to look at the day-to-day experiences to see if there was something that was telling in their story that we as the health care team could change to maybe help them and make the experience a little bit better.”

Dr. Burns-Nader says they are looking for parents whose child has been diagnosed with cancer within the last six months. Participants can be compensated for doing the study for up to seven days.

Spring fever is beginning along the Gulf Coast this week. APR Student Reporter Allison Mollenkamp has more.

This week marks the beginning of spring break season. This season can bring new revenue to businesses in towns with large tourist draws.

Spring break comes with new concerns after new rules were implemented last year at one of the Coast’s most popular destinations, Panama City Beach, Florida.

Tony Kennon is the Mayor of Orange Beach. He says the city is working hard to ensure that the chaos of Panama City does not transfer to Alabama.

“This year with the potential influx of college students we have beefed up all of our police forces. We are going to make a statement to any potential spring breaker that if you come here you’re gonna behave or you’re gonna go to jail. We are not going to prostitute our brand of family friendly for a few weeks of MTV fun.”

Most area universities take spring break next week.

Alabama’s only barrier island has a new attraction for Spring Break season – massive construction equipment on its east end beach.

Construction crews are wrapping up the largest beach nourishment effort in Dauphin Island’s history. The project hopes to restore the badly eroding beaches that attract thousands of summer visitors to the area.

The job is funded by nearly $7 million from the federal government. Crews are adding 300,000 cubic yards of sand to a one-mile stretch of Dauphin Island’s east end beach. Offshore jetties are also being reconfigured to try and prevent erosion.

Weeks Marine, one of the country’s largest dredging companies, started work on the project two weeks ago. It’s expected to be finished by Memorial Day Weekend.

The city of Selma commemorated the 51st anniversary of the voting rights demonstration that came to be known as "Bloody Sunday” last weekend.

Yesterday, civil rights icon and Georgia Congressman John Lewis described to churchgoers in Selma how he was beaten by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.

The Selma Times-Journal reports Lewis told the crowd to keep fighting for justice.

The beating of peaceful protesters set the stage for the Selma-to-Montgomery march and helped build support for congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Selma’s annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee culminates each year with a walk across the bridge that has since become a national landmark.

Last weekend’s festivities didn’t draw the same crowd as last year, when President Barack Obama traveled to Selma for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

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