The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Byram Hills School District

Community Comes Together to Support Danny McManus, a Wampus Student & Leukemia Patient

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Usually ten-year old Danny McManus, a fifth-grader at Wampus Elementary School, is outside with a ball and lacrosse stick.  Standing 5’4” tall, he towers over most of his friends, and is a tireless force of nature.   This past October, while Danny was competing in the Tri-State 91 Lacrosse tournament, he wasn’t keeping up the way he normally would.  Danny’s parents sensed something was wrong, took him to the pediatrician, and within 24 hours was admitted into the hospital and diagnosed with leukemia–a form of blood cancer.  When I see people in town now, Deidre McManus, Danny’s mother says, “I realize we have changed people by sharing what we are going through.” The subsequent outpouring of support from family and friends, neighbors, doctors, teachers and clergy tells a heartwarming story about the generosity of Armonk’s community.

When Mrs. McManus and her husband Francis were told that they needed to bring Danny to the hospital, they had to find someone to take care of their older son, Colin, who is in 7th grade. Their neighbors Drs. Erik Cohen and Maude Lemercier were already friends, but have become like extended family, giving Colin an extra set of adults to rely on, and helping the McManuses to interpret the constant stream of medical information.

That first night, while Danny was being evaluated in the hospital, Deirdre thought of her lifelong friend, Karen Wolownik, a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Leader in the Pediatric Blood & Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation Unit of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center.  Within a few hours, Karen received an alert from the hospital about Danny. She called Deirdre right away–Karen’s expertise was precisely what they needed. Karen was confident that Danny was in the right place to deal with this horrible disease.

It’s taught us a lot about cancer–how it can affect anyone, even kids… and that even with cancer Danny is still just Danny—my friend.  He has shown us that having a strong growth mind-set helps get you through the things in life. —Shane Gordon, Danny’s friend

Danny’s AML Treatment

The first line of treatment for Danny’s acute myeloid leukemia which is commonly called AML is potent chemotherapy, often followed by a stem cell transplant. The Children and Adolescent Cancer and Blood Disease Center at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital has become a center of excellence for such therapies. The center was established in 2011 when Westchester Medical Center hired Dr. Mitchell Cairo from Columbia University to lead it. Dr. Cairo is a world renowned specialist in stem cell biology, molecular oncology and experimental immunology and a long-time Armonk resident.

In addition to the expertise provided by Dr. Cairo and his team, the McManuses have been overwhelmed by the competence and compassion of the staff at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. “They’ve worked with Danny every step of the way to always make sure he understood what to expect during every procedure.” For example, before Danny had a port connected to deliver chemotherapy, the Child Life Specialist explained the procedure by letting Danny feel the port and see how it would be used with the help of a doll.  Then, during the chemo, Danny needed an NG tube (a nasogastric tube) to deliver nutrition directly to his stomach. The physician working with Dr. Cairo, Jordan Watson, MD, asked one of the residents to demonstrate for Danny what it would be like and, right in front of Danny, inserted a tube down Jordan’s nose and throat! She said, “I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like!”

Community “Shavees” Support Danny

As if that wasn’t enough, last month Dr. Watson asked the McManuses if Danny would be part of her team, raising funds to support the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which is dedicated to funding research for childhood cancers. Danny’s family and friends created The Mighty McManus Team, Dr. Watson and her fiancée shaved their heads alongside nine of Danny’s friends, and together they raised nearly $30,000.  Danny’s friends, Shane Gordon and Michael Bellantoni, are two of the “shavees.”  Gordon says, “The reason we all shaved our heads was because he really likes his hair, so we thought it would be good if we let ours all grow back together.”  In addition to funding research, the McManus’s relatives created a GoFundMe campaign to lend a hand while Deirdre and Francis take time from work and manage the costs of Danny’s care.

Danny’s friends, before and after shaving their heads at the St. Baldrick’s Fundraising Event

A Turn for the Better

The next step in Danny’s treatment was a stem cell transplant. Statistically, 1 in 4 siblings have markers indicating they are a good match and won’t be rejected by the recipient. In Danny’s case, they were thrilled to discover that his brother, Colin, is a 100% donor match for Danny, making a stem cell transplant an ideal option. On January 4th Colin underwent a 3-hour operation–drawing bone marrow from both hips to obtain stem cells to populate Danny’s bone marrow. Since then, Danny has been improving every day, and although he has no immune system of his own yet, he was able to come home from the hospital after 133 days when they celebrated Danny’s 11th birthday on March 13th.

Danny’s friends paid a visit in honor of his birthday.

The McManuses are touched by the efforts made by every church and synagogue in the community. Melissa Gordon, who attends St. Patrick’s with the McManuses, says that since Danny’s diagnosis, a remarkable number of children and adults have filled the church on First Fridays, when the Church holds special services for adoration and prayer. At school, Danny’s teacher, Mrs. Marchesini, has kept Danny as involved as possible, and in the meantime made t-shirts, videos with messages from his classmates, and a video of the whole class singing Happy Birthday to Danny.

Shane Gordon and Danny look forward to getting on their bikes again and exploring the outdoors.  When I asked Shane how Danny’s illness has affected him and his friends he said, “It’s taught us a lot about cancer–how it can affect anyone, even kids… and that even with cancer Danny is still just Danny–my friend. He has shown us that having a strong growth mind-set helps get you through the things in life”.

(L-R): Deirdre McManus, Dr. Jordan Watson and Karen Wolownik
For those who would like to help, both the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and The St. Baldrick’s Foundation accept donations.  In addition, the McManuses recommend registering with BeTheMatch.org to help someone in need of stem cells.

When a person develops leukemia, the body makes more white cells than it needs, crowding out the normal cells and affecting the way major organs work. Eventually, there aren’t enough red blood cells to supply oxygen, enough platelets to clot the blood, or enough normal white blood cells to fight infection.

Balancing the Scales in a Selfie World: March 20 at Byram Hills High School

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Please come to the final Wellness Speaker Series event at BHHS in Armonk for the 2016/17 school year.  Wellness_Flyer Balancing..March 2016.jpeg

Dr. Joanna Bronfman will present – Balancing the Scale in a Selfie World along with Molly Gerster, a Registered Dietician and Nutritionist.

The program will cover how to empower a positive self image, differentiating between healthy eating and restricting, how the media impacts all of our self images and striving to create balance in our lives.

This event is appropriate for adults and teens.  

March 20 at 7 p.m. BHHS Auditorium

Armonk Native Jeremy Blum and his Sixth Sense for Electrical Engineering

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Jeremy Blum working on a product at Shaper, a company that makes hand-held robotic power tools to help people make things.

 

When Jeremy Blum, 26, needs something, he just builds it.

The Armonk native and San Francisco transplant could never remember to bring his umbrella. So, he designed an umbrella stand that lights up when the forecast calls for rain. Not only that, the erudite electrical engineer’s stand is a customized 3D print, which also pings your phone if, despite the illuminated stand, you still forget your umbrella.

“You can teach yourself pretty much anything if you’re willing to spend a few hours on the Internet,” said Blum, head of electrical engineering at Shaper, a young company that makes hand-held robotic power tools.

In January, Forbes Magazine listed the prolific inventor as one of its 30 under 30 in the manufacturing and industry category. Forbes cites his work on Google Glass, his multiple patents and popular YouTube channel–which has many millions of views–dedicated to teaching people about electrical engineering.

“For me, something that’s really important is engineering education and basically making the prospect of building things cheaper and easier, and more accessible to more people,” he said, eager to bring up the subject.

“Because, I think if we have more people who are literate at building things and making things then we’re more likely to have people who are solving problems in a positive way that can impact the world.”

Jeremy Blum was a lead electrical system engineer at Google X, an innovation lab tasked by Google with coming up with solutions to big problems using technology.

At age 23, Blum published a book, “Exploring Arduino,” with the same intent, by walking readers through the “prototyping platform for embedded electronics” called Arduino.

“It’s basically an easy way to get started designing electronic systems,” he said. Blum describes it as a self-help book for self-starters. The book has been translated into several languages and is used at universities across the country, including his alma mater, Cornell University.

“Actually, this book was inspired by my class, and Jeremy did a great job presenting the key concepts of Arduino programming,” said Francois Guimbretière, associate professor at Cornell University and Blum’s professor for the rapid prototyping class where he first learned about Arduino. “It is only fitting for me to adopt it as a textbook.”

“I once asked him, ‘What is his dream life like?’” said Brenda Wilder, Blum’s grandmother, whose career teaching college-level biology sparked his early interest in science. “And he said, ‘Well, I do want to make money. But, only because I want to be able to stop working and get involved in projects like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). In other words, help students learn science… He’s very altruistic, his heart is very much in the right place and I think one day he’s going to make a very big difference in this world. He actually already has.” The most high-profile of which is Google Glass, which took the world by storm in 2012.

“For a variety of technical, but more so social reasons, I don’t think it was every really destined to be the consumer product that people envisioned it might be,” said Blum, who worked on its system architecture and electrical design.

After Google Glass lost its luster in the public eye, Google refocused the product for enterprise situations, like assembly lines, medicine and health care, which Blum said is a lot of what he worked on.

He left Google X, an innovation lab under the Google umbrella at the time of his employment, for Shaper in October 2015 wanting to work on something new.

At a recent symposium for Byram Hills High School’s Science Research Program, Blum returned home to give a keynote address and show off some of the cool stuff he’s inventing these days. “He’s a real legacy here and we talk about him a lot,” said Stephanie Greenwald, one of the teachers for the Authentic Science Research Program at Byram Hills High School. “And he was so the same, genuine and kind and giving.”

The school’s Science Research Program, one of the first in the country, is a three-year science elective course in which students pick a topic, identify and work with a mentor in a related field and produce an original piece of research.

Combining his passion to help people with his interest in robotics, Blum designed and built a prosthetic control technology that used force sensors to supplement existing technology to build a prosthetic hand. His design was also intended to make the prosthetic more cost effective.

“Jeremy was always tinkering with something. I think his philosophy was something like, ‘Gee, I wonder if I could…’ and then he would,” said David Keith, director of the school’s Authentic Science Research Program.

At Cornell, Blum continued exploring robotics, while studying electrical and computer engineering for both his undergraduate and master’s program.

“Once you’ve built a bunch of stuff you just start to get a sense, kind of like a sixth sense, of what you need to make something happen,” he said.

Now, at Shaper, his focus is making power tools that make it easier for people to make their own things.

“I think it’s every person’s responsibility to leave some sort of positive impact on the world,” he said. “And I think there’s two ways to do that. You either directly impact people’s lives in some way… or, you make the tools that make it easier for a larger group of people to kind of pave their own way.”

Brian Donnelly is a Westchester native. He has been a local reporter in Westchester, national news health editor and public relations and social media specialist.

Extra-Curricular Matters and Lessons in Life

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Motivational Speaker Geri Mariano. Carolyn Simpson Photo.
Motivational Speaker Geri Mariano. Carolyn Simpson Photo

By Geri Mariano

I am not a parent, so the ubiquitous phrase “Back to School” does not elicit the glee it might otherwise from adults counting down the days until their children leave the house each morning. However, I am excited that the school year is fast approaching. And the reason for that is simple: school had, and still has, a tremendous impact on my life.

Unabashedly, I was one of those students who actually looked forward to returning to the routine of school each September. While I enjoyed the summer months, my physical limitations (I was born with abnormalities of all things skeletal) meant that I could never be as active as most kids. Therefore, school was a place I could belong–and even thrive academically –with peers for six to seven hours each day. So, during the spring of 1972, my mom and I made the rounds of Northern Westchester school districts as I was due to start Kindergarten come September. Our mission was to meet school administrators and find which districts would welcome a student with special needs; there was no federal mandate to publically educate children with disabilities at that time.

In all my presentations, I give much credit to the Byram Hills School District for accepting me before it was legally required to do so. Was everything hunky-dory from my first day to graduation thirteen years later? No. Were restrictions placed for my own “safety” (and likely school liability)? Yes. Were parents more nervous than my fellow Kindergartners? Yes! Was I made to feel an oddity from classmates? Happily, mostly No … and this is why I embarked, several years ago now, on sharing my stories.

When at Smith College, unable to walk quickly about campus, I zoomed around on what I affectionately called my “buggy”. My daily routes (to classes and my work-study job) took me past a campus pre-school where, unsurprisingly, the children who saw me would stare, point or giggle. A wise teacher flagged me down one day and asked if I might meet with the children. I readily accepted. Introducing myself, I asked them if I looked “funny.” When they admitted that I did, I agreed with them. I don’t remember all we talked about, but, when leaving, I suggested that now that they knew me, maybe I wouldn’t look so weird to them. Suddenly, I had many new friends, and each day after, there were waves and shouts of “Hi Geri!”

Geri in elementary school.
Geri in elementary school.

Pieces of a puzzle I hadn’t realized existed began falling into place. 
I thought of my Byram Hills classmates and how they had always known me. Years later, when reconnecting with many through social media, they all confirmed my hypothesis: they’d always accepted me because they always knew me as just Geri, one of them. I was never a stranger, so I was never seen as “different.” And had they known of any bullying incidents, each offered they would have quickly taken care of the situation. What an amazing gift!

Still, I am reminded how important it is to teach our children, and how adults in particular have their part to play–especially after one discouraging encounter at a local department store.

A group of three or four pre-teen girls began following me around while I was shopping alone. I can accept a look here, a stare there, even a pointed finger or snicker. But what I cannot abide are triple takes or being trailed by youth of an age that should be better mannered. I remember turning, raising my shortened arms, asking “do you have a problem?” The girls quickly moved away, but, minutes later, stealthily began following me again. I then turned to track them to the adult charged with their behavior. Loathe as I am to complain to a stranger, I interrupted this woman on her cell phone and simply stated that the girls had been very rude. Shrugging, the woman responded, “What do you expect?” I expect adults and parents to do better.

My mom often admitted I was dealt a bad hand and that life isn’t fair. However, she’d continue, that did not mean the world owed me anything; nothing would be handed to me on a silver platter. Has life been a struggle? Yes. Have I had good times over the years? Absolutely. Would I like life to be easier? Of course. But I’d also like to see better understanding in the world for a whole host of difficulties.

I choose to do my part to facilitate that understanding, at least of differences, in our community and elsewhere. Will you join me? 
Thanks, Just Geri

Longtime Armonk resident Geri Mariano was born with diatrophic dysplasia, a lifelong condition that affects bone and cartilage resulting in many physical and social challenges. To learn more about Geri, please visit her website: 
www.justcallmegeri.com