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The second-grade students' faces \"lit up with excitement\" when they presented the doll to Payton last Friday, according to both Pendergrast and the school's principal, Rick Kogelschatz.

In addition to the doll, the students used their money that went to Payton to buy him bedding and other supplies.

\"In our school announcement every morning we say to the kids, 'What you are doing today is important. You can do it. We will not give up on you,'\" Kogelschatz said. \"What the kids did [with Payton], they lived out those words. It was them following through on that.\"

Jandrisevits said she was especially touched to learn that Payton has named his doll \"Little Payton\" and takes it with him to his doctor appointments.

\"PHOTO:
Kristin Haynes
PHOTO: Payton Haynes, 5, takes his "Little Payton" doll to doctor appointments.
>

\"That’s exactly it. That's the whole essence of this doll-making,\" she said. \"Kids should be able to look into a doll and see the themselves. When they name it after themselves, it proves the point.\"

Haynes and her husband plan to use the doll to help educate Payton's classmates and friends. The family has become ambassadors for raising awareness of hydrocephalus and the severity of Payton's condition, in which something as seemingly simple as a headache could mean another surgery for him.

\"Payton will go to school and it’s much easier to take a doll with us and say, ‘Hey, Payton has had some big surgeries under his hair and that may be why he can’t play contact sports or has to leave for a doctor’s appointment,'\" said Haynes. \"A lot of this for us moving forward is going to be teaching him to be an advocate for himself and educating other people.\"

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