Dear HKMS Families,

Mikey Friedman was, in many ways, a typical middle school student when he was a student here at HKMS.  Mikey's parents and teachers guided him through the ups and downs of early adolescents. One of his teachers (and our own AP), Mrs. Mohr shared with students how Mikey had an outlook on life that focused on the good.  Even as a middle schooler, he had a way of connecting with everyone.  Mikey even sat at different lunch tables each day.  After completing his 8th grade year, Mikey was off to Barlow, but during his freshman year he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer.  He was treated at Sloan-Kettering in the city enduring surgeries, several rounds of chemo, a stem cell transplant, and radiation.  These treatments eventually got him to remission, but caused many life-threatening side-effects and Mikey was hospitalized for weeks or months at a time.  During these long hospital stays, boredom and complacency were big enemies.  He passed the time, connected to friends and family, and kept up with school work by utilizing his access to the latest "mobile" technology.   Technology became a lifeline for Mikey for both entertainment and connections.  

After being nominated by his doctors, Mikey was granted a Make-a-Wish.  A vast majority of Make-a-Wishers use this amazing opportunity to go on a big vacation, meet their favorite celebrity or athlete, or attend a special event.  Mikey made a different wish. "Realizing that many families can’t afford the electronics that helped him through his treatment, Mikey decided to use his wish to start The Mikey’s Way Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to better the lives of pediatric cancer patients, by creating meaningful diversions and connections to the outside world children are forced to leave behind.  In a word—help them escape.  We also help improve the child life facilities of the hospitals we serve." (from www.mikeysway.org/about-our-founder/). Mikey made his first distribution (called a Mikey’s Way Day) to the Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York on December 2005. Today, Mikey's Way donates devices to over 100 hospitals in New England and the Tri-State area. 

Every three years in March, we honor Mikey's legacy, and bring his wish and spirit back to life in the halls and classrooms of his middle school.  Individual students, student leadership groups, and extracurriculars all come together for a month long fundraiser to support the Mikey's Way Foundation, that we call Mikey's Madness!  There will be basketball tournaments, bake sales,  bracelets for sale, can and bottle returns, and 100 other ideas that all come from students, all working toward the goal of raising funds for this amazing foundation.  We will culminate our collective efforts at a final rally on 3/28, during which we will also recognize our 60th anniversary!  So much more information and details on this to come the week we return from break.

We culminated our 105th day with the best in-school concert any school puts on that we call the Musical Extravaganza of Awesomeness!  Check it out and all the great middle school teaching and learning at Keller this week in the sections below.  

Wishing you and your whole family a wonderful winter vacation!

Steve Clapp, Ed.D.

These emerging Spanish speakers are conjugating verbs and translating new vocab using context clues.