Hermitage students’ efforts raise $18,156 for Lou Gehrig's disease
Stricken man, father salute kids

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer
Published April 13, 2008 09:10 pm -
Hermitage School District students who raised $18,156 to help Stephen Comninos battle Lou Gehrig’s disease received praise from the stricken man and his father.


HERMITAGE —


Anyone who criticizes today’s kids within earshot of John Comninos is bound to get an earful.


The Hermitage man said he’s heard the knock on today’s young people for their supposed self-centeredness and other character deficiencies, but he doesn’t buy it.

“It’s so wonderful, these kids,” he said, specifically referring to the Hermitage School District students who raised $18,156 for his family to help his son, Stephen, battle Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“It’s just a tribute to them, and their parents,” he said. “These kids are really good role models to the younger kids. They sacrificed all this time and effort and they didn’t even know my boy.”

Stephen Comninos, a 2001 Hickory High School graduate, is being treated for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the brain and spinal cord. His treatment is costly and insurance has not covered the experimental treatment he has been receiving, which costs about $8,000 a month.

The fundraising effort started among teachers, but grew when school board President Victor J. Ellenberger solicited help from the Modern Woodmen of America, who agreed to match up to $2,500 raised.

The goal grew to raising $2,500, and then the project ballooned, said Laura Mount, who advises Hickory’s Students for Charity with Alissa Sgro.

“It took on a life of it’s own,” she said.

Although the Modern Woodmen’s donation proved critical to the success of the campaign, the effort literally showed the impact the smallest of donations can have. The high school ran a penny war that netted about $1,250 in change — half raised in honor of Erika Anne Hirschmann, the 1999 Hickory grad who died March 15 — and Artman Elementary School second-graders contributed $60 through a lemonade sale. Other events included hat day and polar bear walk-a-thon.

Meanwhile, the Shenango Valley Foundation, Sharon, also has been collecting donations. When the Hickory total is added to a $5,000 pledge from the Winner Foundation and donations at the foundation, about $50,000 has been raised so far, said foundation Executive Director Larry Haynes, adding that more donations come in every day.

“It is unreal,” Stephen Comninos responded. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you everybody who supported me.”

John Comninos said the results show what big hearts the residents of the Shenango Valley have.

“Everyone comes together here,” he said.

“When people hear of a good cause, they reach into their wallets,” said Larry Perna of the Modern Woodmen, a fraternal life insurance company. “There’s no limit.”

The Comninos first came to realize the compassion and selflessness of area residents more than two decades ago when people came forward to assist the family in caring for oldest daughter Nicole. She contracted meningitis as a baby and had to be cared for her entire life. She died nine years ago at age 22.

“I am in awe with the response and generosity that the entire community displayed towards me,” Stephen Comninos said in a written statement. “Your compassion is a tribute to the character of our community and makes me proud to be a member of the Shenango Valley.”



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