Teens Become Bakers To Help Friend

Stow-Munroe students and bread rise to occasion for transplant aid

STOW-MUNROE FALLS HIGH SCHOOL (Saturday, February 04, 2006) - More than 30 Stow-Munroe Falls High School students stood elbow to elbow this week for a huge baking activity that yielded a lot of dough -- both literally and figuratively.
Curiously, it had nothing to do with home economics.
This was all about liver economics or, put another way, making sure there is enough money to help one of their own -- 17-year-old Marie Pasuit, who is waiting on a liver.
Marie, a popular Stow-Munroe Falls High senior and member of the cross-country and track teams, was diagnosed a year ago with autoimmune hepatitis with macronodular cirrhosis. She is on the waiting list at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
Helpless to do anything else, her school and adult friends are doing all they can to make the waiting bearable and raise money to help offset the $300,000 cost of the transplant.
That includes baking and selling bread.
Clearly, this one-day kitchen duty -- which produced more than 1,700 pepperoni rolls, pepperoni with peppers rolls and spinach wraps -- was a labor of love for the students.
The pepperoni loaves sold for $4.75; the spinach wraps, for $4.25. The sale netted more than $7,000 for Marie's operation.
''I fear how much they would have been able to sell if they had longer,'' student council adviser Tina Keithley joked.
Understandably, Marie and her parents, Mark and Lisa, are grateful beyond words for the wealth of support.
Business pitches in
They're especially thankful to Rick and Debbi Sands, owners of Stow's Great Harvest Bread Co., who graciously opened the store on their day off and spent hours the day before mixing the dough.
The Sandses also provided the industrial-size ovens, the know-how and the recipes for what the students affectionately called their ''Bulldog Bread.''
The Sandses picked up the tab for all of the ingredients: 330 pounds of pepperoni, 375 pounds of cheese, 16 pounds of garlic butter, 25 pounds of yeast, 50 gallons of water, 41 cups of salt and enough flour to yield 1,600 loaves.
Also on hand to provide a valuable assist were Great Harvest employees Sue Sprungle, Brenda Reed, Tim Pablick and Kristin Sundman, who, like their bosses, came in on their day off and for no pay.
''I told Rick (Sands) I was ready to break down when I walked in here,'' an emotional Mark Pasuit volunteered. ''I can't believe all that people are willing to do for Marie.''
Lisa Pasuit, who wears the hospital pager that will signal when a liver has been found for her daughter, called the bake sale ''awesome.''
''This is almost too big for words,'' she said.
Keithley, buoyed by the students' business savvy, said they called on their families, friends, neighbors and local businesses for bread orders.
''They also took fliers to the local elementary and middle schools and Holy Family School,'' Keithley said of their five-day sales blitz.
''I just want to help Marie in every way possible,'' 15-year-old baker-for-the-day Stephanie Morgan said.
Team Marie
All of the money raised for Marie will go into the Children's Organ Transplant Association fund. ''For every $25,000 raised, COTA kicks in $2,500 up to $10,000,'' Mark Pasuit explained.
Patty Childress, athletic secretary at the high school, is serving as Marie's COTA campaign coordinator.
''Marie was in my Girl Scout troop for seven years. Her mom was my co-leader,'' Childress reminisced.
The Pasuits are especially comforted to have Patty and Harry Childress in their corner.
Their oldest daughter had a cancerous tumor in her leg when she was in high school.
''She's 11 years in remission now,'' Patty Childress was happy to report.
Downplaying her own investment of time in the cause, Childress was quick to applaud the efforts of others like Mary Viola, owner of nearby Art's Pizza, who donated pizzas for the student workers' lunches on Bake Day.
Others working on Marie's COTA team are Mark Iwanski, media coordinator; and Renee Kneep, trustee. Renee is the owner of the Hudson-based Little Leapers Inc. gymnastics studio, where Lisa Pasuit is on staff.
Great Harvest customer and solo artist Jimm Motyka also donated money from the sale of his Subject & Predicate CD at the store that day to Marie's cause.
''He wanted to perform here while everything was going on,'' Debbi Sands said, but space was at a premium.
The Sandses saw the big day like they see their business -- as a way to show God's love.
''We've been given a unique opportunity to give back,'' Rick Sands said.
''It is the Pasuits who are enduring. We recognize that and are just trying to spread God's love.''

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