Sidney Stewart was everyone's sweetheart at the Chapman Intermediate School Valentine's Dance.

She just couldn't be there to enjoy it.

Karen Rosen /AJC (ENLARGE)

Sidney's Best Friend Forever, Anna Hagerty, shows off the T-shirt she decorated.

Karen Rosen /AJC (ENLARGE)

Eighth-grader Olivia Lathem paints 'I (heart) Sidney' on Sara Owens' face. 'It will probably wash off on my pillow tonight,' Sara said.

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The Acworth sixth-grader was undergoing radiation treatment for brain cancer while nearly 700 fellow students danced and frolicked around the gym to show their support for her.

They also had their faces painted with designs like "I (heart) Sidney," competed in cakewalks, ate pizza, made "Get Well" cards and posed for pictures next to Sidney's photograph.

"My heart gets so tight seeing all of the kids and how much they love her," said Sidney's mom, Kim Stewart.

She relayed their good wishes when she got back to the hospital.

"Sidney was very emotional, crying," Stewart said.

More than half the students enrolled at the Woodstock school paid $10 each to participate in "Chapman Hearts for Sidney." With the addition of concessions and raffles, the event raised more than $10,000 for the Sidney Elizabeth Stewart medical fund at Bank of America.

"I know she's going through a lot of frustration right now and this would mean a lot to her," said sixth-grader Anna Haggerty, who wore a T-shirt she decorated with "BFFL" or "Best Friends For Life."

Sidney, 11, hasn't left Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite since she was diagnosed with a brain tumor Nov. 27.

Two days after doctors successfully removed a pair of cancerous tumors —one the size of a tennis ball— Sidney suffered complications. A temporary condition left her unable to speak or move her extremities.

She's aware, though, of everything happening around her and communicates by blinking her eyes once for no and twice for yes. She can squeeze her right hand and last week moved her head for the first time.

"It's great to see that she's all in there," Kim Stewart said, "but at the same time your heart pours out for her because it's as if she's in an awake coma."

Before she got sick, Sidney was a competitive gymnast and cheerleader. Strong-willed and independent, she knew how she liked things done.

"That determination is what I believe will lead her through this," her mother said.

"Her neurosurgeon is very confident that she is going to recover," said Stewart. "We encourage her every day, tell her this is temporary, your muscles will get stronger, everything's going to get better."

The kids at Chapman keep up with Sidney's progress on the www.caringbridge.org website. Some come to visit, but Stewart said, it's very difficult for the children to see her in that condition. She has lost 20 pounds and is now a frail 64 pounds.

Sixth-grader Connor Swing said that when a friend told him about Sidney, his first thought was, "Wow...."

As he put tiny hearts on a card for his former homeroom classmate, he said, "I think she would be thrilled to see how much everybody cares about her."

A box bursting with cards was delivered to Sidney on Valentine's Day.

"I think it would be really sad for her, and she must be missing all her friends," said fifth-grader Sidney Taylor-Reynolds.

Beth Choppa, the PTA president, said she thought a Valentine's Dance was the best way to get the students involved, although she had to assure some of the girls that they didn't need a date to attend.

Principal Dawn Weinbaum believed the turnout was the biggest the school has had for an activity of this kind. Many kids wore red or purple, one of Sidney's favorite colors.

The Chapman students' generosity reminded Stewart of Sidney.

"She's always been a very caring child," she said. "If she had a box of ice creams, she'd give them all out and then have me go buy more."

The Junior Service League of Woodstock will hold another fundraiser for Sidney with its charity golf tournament, "Give A Child A Mulligan," on April 25.

The money will help since Feb. 21 marks the end of Kim Stewart's allowed absence from work. She has requested a leave of absence from her job as an insurance agent.

"I don't know if they'll be able to hold my job," said Stewart, whose trip to the dance was only her fourth time away the hospital since November. "I have to just concentrate right now on Sidney."

Sidney's father, Donald, is a self-employed courier and they have another child, son Devan, a freshman baseball player at Etowah High School. If Kim Stewart loses her job, the family would have to seek insurance through COBRA.

"It happened so fast," Kim Stewart said. "To see her so healthy and then snap your fingers and to be that sick.

"You never think it will happen to you."