Brighton's Brown Brings Holiday Joy
May 22, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Bailey Brown will begin at Oakland University this fall with plenty to drive her through what at times will be grueling studies as she prepares for a career in pediatric medicine.
As the oldest of six siblings, she’s always been around kids – and she loves it that way and looks forward to caring for them as their doctor. But sadly, though just a senior at Brighton, she’s already experienced her share of hospital life – although those tough times also provide motivation and inspired another mission as well.
Brown ran across an advertisement this past winter in an American Girl catalog for dolls without hair – an amazing idea, she thought, because it allows children who have lost their hair during cancer treatment to have a doll that looks just like them.
She decided to raise enough money -- $230 – to buy two dolls for little girls spending Christmas in the hospital. Brown – a recipient of an inaugural MHSAA/Lake Trust Credit Union “Community Service Award” – ended up with more than $5,000 and an opportunity to play Santa Claus to many more thankful families.
“I couldn’t believe how fast things grew. It was hard to keep track of all the donations, but people were just messaging me on Facebook – I couldn’t believe people wanted to do that,” Brown said. “I never thought I’d be able to make such a big difference.”
The Community Service Awards recognize contributions by Michigan’s high school student-athletes away from the field. Brown, a cross country and track runner for the Bulldogs, will use her $1,000 award as a scholarship toward her education at Oakland, where she’ll be part of the Honors College. Six honorees total are receiving awards this spring; Second Half is featuring one a day this week.
Since seventh grade, Brown has battled what was diagnosed her freshman year as amplified musculoskeletal pain syndrome – an abnormally overactive pain reflex that for Brown caused head-to-toe pain especially in her neck and back, making it difficult to sit and do school work. She also had to stop playing soccer completely and running for a time because of pain in her hips. As a junior, she was diagnosed with bone spurs and torn labrums in both hips, requiring multiple surgeries. As she worked to recover that winter, she had to enter treatment for anorexia after losing 25 percent of her body weight.
Despite those challenges, she managed to build a 3.88 grade-point average to rank among the top 15 percent in her graduating class. She also came back to continue running cross country and returned to the track this spring for the first time since eighth grade, while also participating in National Honor Society and her school’s Interact club.
As a doctor, Brown hopes to help children and teenagers who might be going through the same. Her service over the winter was aimed especially at children who would have to remain in the hospital over the holidays.
The outpouring of donations allowed her to affect many more families than she would’ve at first imagined – she was able to purchase 48 dolls plus hundreds of toys for little boys also undergoing cancer treatment. She delivered the dolls and toys to University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, where she volunteered in the annual Mott Toy Shop that allows parents to pick up gifts for their children free of charge – saving money and time shopping “to make Christmas much easier and children a lot happier.”
Brown surely will be busy jumping into her first year of college, and she still fights pain although running and deep tissue massage alleviate some of it. But she said she’d like to start another campaign for hospitalized kids like the one that came off so successfully this past winter, maybe something even larger in scope.
“I am proud of everything I have accomplished despite my setbacks,” Brown wrote in her award application, “and look forward to touching even more lives this year.
“I have learned never give up, no matter how many obstacles are thrown my way.”
The Community Service Awards are sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Lake Trust Credit Union to recognize student-athletes' efforts to improve the lives of others in their communities. In addition to the $1,000 award, the Lake Trust Foundation is awarding an additional $500 to each honoree, to be donated to a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization of the awardee’s choice.
PHOTO: (Top) Brighton’s Bailey Brown stands with some of her donation of toys to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital this past winter. (Middle) Brown is recognized by Mott on its Instagram feed. (Photos courtesy of Bailey Brown.)
2017 Community Service Awards
Sunday: Colon "Yard Squad" - Read
Stoney Creek Leaders Speak Up to Save Lives
May 26, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The crowd for Rochester Hills Stoney Creek’s boys basketball game against rival Rochester was as rowdy as could be hoped for most of the evening Feb. 28.
But it fell silent during halftime as Stoney Creek juniors Nate Davis, Kevin Price and Isabella Ubaydi spoke of how suicide had affected them and their community.
A student had committed suicide every year during their high school careers – including Price’s brother just six months before.
All three are members of the school’s Cougar Athletic Leadership Council, which put on the Suicide Prevention Awareness basketball game not only to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, but also to start the conversation on a sensitive topic that has hit home.
“We wanted to get the word out that it’s OK to talk about these issues – help the topic get out of the dark,” Ubaydi said.
“It was insane. It was awesome. There were so many people. Our student section area where we all sit was filled up to the top row. There were a lot of people from the community who didn’t go to Stoney Creek, or have alumni (associated with the school) or anything like that. But they were at Stoney Creek, and it was great to show people actually care in our community.”
The leadership council is a club made up of Stoney Creek athletes who coordinate special events, including for athletics, with an eye especially on helping the community’s youth, elderly and those with disabilities. Ubaydi, Price and Davis are co-chairs of the CALC’s special events committee.
The tragic circumstances of the last three years led the group to bring suicide prevention to the forefront. While Ubaydi spoke mostly about why the event was held and how donations would be spent, Price and Davis (Price’s best friend) talked about how suicide had affected them personally. “You could hear a pin drop,” Ubaydi said. “After we were done, (the crowd) gave a standing ovation.”
CALC raised nearly $3,500 selling T-shirts that also included free student admission to the game. After Ubaydi, Price and Davis spoke, buckets were passed through the crowd during a “miracle minute” and filled with another $1,200.
All profits from the night, including $500 from concessions, were donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Ubaydi said the $1,000 from the Community Service Award also will be sent to AFSP.
She’s since heard stories from teachers of classmates coming forward to express worries about people in their lives, a sign awareness is paying off. At the same time, Ubaydi and her co-chairs are just as concerned about people who didn’t attend the Suicide Prevention Awareness game and might be experiencing troubles in their lives – but the hope is the event spoke loudly enough to be heard by anyone who needs help.
All three leaders are juniors beginning to contemplate their futures after high school; Ubaydi is leaning toward Roanoke College in Virginia to study political science and minor in theology, while Price is considering Michigan State to study environmental science and Davis is looking at options for pre-law or political science. They hope to host the suicide prevention event again as seniors before they graduate, with future CALC students then carrying on the mission.
“Suicide is an uncomfortable topic to talk about. Since people saw us relating to how it has affected us personally, the community will become comfortable discussing mental illnesses together,” Ubaydi wrote in CALC’s award application.
“I wanted to have this event so people understand that the influence that one person can make may be life-changing. This then causes them to be there for others, see the signs quicker, and save more lives.”
PHOTO: (Top) Cougar Athletic Leadership Council leaders Kevin Price, Isabella Ubaydi and Nate Davis show their shirts from the school’s Suicide Prevention Awareness night. VIDEOS: (Top) State Champs! Network covered the event and interviewed its organizers. (Below) Davis, Ubaydi and Price speak during halftime, also filmed by State Champs! Network.
2017 Community Service Awards
Sunday: Colon "Yard Squad" - Read
Monday: Bailey Brown, Brighton - Read
Tuesday: Justice Ottinger, Newaygo - Read
Thursday: Katie Sesi, Ann Arbor Huron - Read
Friday: Nikki Sorgi, Utica Ford - Read
Friday: Cougar Athletic Leadership Council, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek - Read