Scholarship Presentation took place at the Ada Covered Bridge on Sunday, August 7th. Please help us congratulate John Worm, and Megan Heeringa. Both recipients are bone marrow cancer survivors due to their leukemia diagnosis’s. (AML).
Committee; Mike Lunn, Matthew Lunn, Suzanne Lunn, Jessica Barney, Megan Heering (Scholarship Winner), John Worm (Scholarship Winner), Julie Paas, Joe Sedlecky, and Mary Sedlecky * Missing Justin Sedlecky, Nan Lunn
Congratulations to this years 2016-2017 Scholarship Winners
John Worm
John is a 2016 Graduate of West Catholic High School in Grand Rapids, MI. He will be attending Grand Valley State University in the fall pursuing an engineering degree. He is the middle child out of seven brothers and sisters. While in seventh grade John developed Acute Myelogenic leukemia (AML) and was admitted to the hospital in isolation for nearly 3 months receiving chemo treatments until he reached remission. In June of 2010 John started his bone marrow transplant (BMT) in which his oldest sister was the donor. His transplant was successful but no without several complications, some that require additional time inpatient. John was finally allowed back to school 1 year after his leukemia diagnosis. Since that time, John has remained relatively healthy. He has been able to maintain an ordinary life. He participated in sports throughout his high school career, doing baseball, bowling, and rugby. Through all this John still was able to achieve academic excellency and ranked sixth in his graduating class.
Megan Heeringa
Megan is a 2013 graduate of Kenowa Hills High School and is currently attending Calvin College. Megan was a senior in high school when she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Since then she spent over 200 days inpatient at two different hospitals, an equal amount of time receiving outpatient treatments, over a month completely sedated, intubated, on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit, and have had eighteen rounds of chemotherapy, two bone marrow transplants all while missed half her senior year of high school. Today she still is dealing with complications from graft vs host disease following her transplant and is yet to be a “normal” college student. Megan was contemplating a career in medicine before her illness and now is leaning towards a profession of patient rehabilitation after having to experience the need for many rehabilitation therapies herself. Through this all Megan has remained positive and feels blessed with all the love and support her has received from friends and family and is an ambassador for “Be the Match”, “Make a Wish”, and “Wigs 4 Kidz” programs.