Thursday, March 25, 2010

Team Sasha

Building a Memory: Team Sasha collects LEGOs for SLANT 45 in honor of a friend’s life

By Steve Pate
from SLANT 45 newsletter In the Huddle

Sasha Okhotskiy loved LEGOs. Even when the brain cancer returned and he did not always remember one day from the next, he spent hours in his room at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, making art from the little plastic pieces.

At the hospital, Sasha put together smaller items. He had already built a remarkable carousel. And a four-foot-tall Empire State Building. He used 5,922 LEGOs to construct the Taj Mahal. 

When Sasha passed away last August at age 11, his coach at the Plano Sports Authority volunteered to organize a basketball team, named Team Sasha, comprised of the seven boys who enjoyed playing together with Sasha. (The picture at left is of Team Sasha 3 years ago with their inspiration, Sasha Okhotskiy, seated second row, far left.)

Most of the boys were small but, like Sasha, athletic. Very early, they confronted a team with 11 players who had been together since kindergarten. Team Sasha won, 41-14. They proceeded to win 19 consecutive games without a loss.

“We just blew everybody away,” says Lynn Fellhauer, whose son Lane had been good friends with Sasha and played on the team. “Looking at them, nobody could believe this team would win. But the kids were good, and we had the spirit.”
Surely their greatest fan was Sasha’s dad, Sergei. He attended every game and sat on the bench and cheered loudly.
And despite losing on the court for the only time in the championship game last month, Team Sasha is not done just yet.
They have now become a part of  SLANT 45.

And how would these seven boys like to dedicate their time to this huge Super Bowl XLV creative learning initiative? By collecting LEGOs, of course, and donating them to Children’s Medical Center.

Lynn Fellhauer owns The Graphic Edge, a graphics design company that makes large posters and banners and signs. While online one day researching Super Bowl XLV’s Emerging Business Program for minority- and women-owned businesses, she spotted the SLANT 45 logo and decided to look into the program.

“We had already been talking about doing a community service project,” Lynn says. “In the Jewish community, they call it a mitzvah — doing a good deed. We knew how much Sasha loved LEGOs, so we decided to collect LEGOs at our schools, our churches, our temples in honor of Sasha.”

She adds, “Children get that their parents and religious leaders and teachers care about community service. But when their heroes, like football players, get involved, then they feel that it’s kind of important.”

Lynn is now the project coach for Team Sasha’s newest endeavor. For hospital sanitation reasons, the LEGOs they collect must be new and still in their packages.

Lane, age 12, says they hope to collect 100 boxes of LEGOs this summer. Or, as he puts it, “Enough to make everybody happy.”

Lane adds, “Sasha liked LEGOs so much, and it’s a good thing to do for kids who can’t be as active as they want to be. He built amazing things. So this is cool; it’s exciting.”

Lane and the other boys never abandoned Sasha. From the time his headaches began in the second grade and the tumor was found, they stuck by him through chemotherapy and radiation treatments. When he beat it that time, he remained a superior athlete.

And when the cancer returned even worse in the summer of his fifth grade year, the children visited him at the hospital throughout the treatments.

“Adults cannot handle anybody passing away,” Lynn says, “and it’s really even harder for a child. How do you explain to them — your friend? You can’t.”

And yet, through it all, perhaps Sasha’s friends have learned a good deal more about life than death.

And then there is this: On the night that Team Sasha walked off the court with their 19th and final victory, Olga Okhotskiy gave birth to her second child, a son named Elan.

Someday Elan will hear the stories of his older brother’s legend, of Sasha’s joys with LEGOs and the championship run of Team Sasha and the Super Bowl program SLANT 45, where the spirit lives on.


Friday, March 19, 2010

Super (Bowl) Special Photo Friday!

Check out this awesome short commercial about Slant 45! These will start airing on Fox 4 this weekend - see if you can find one during the ad breaks between your cartoons and favorite family shows.



Kids: to sign up for Slant 45, check out the registration page with a teacher, scout leader or parent. Then get your friends together and start brainstorming about how you can make a change for the better in your community!


Friday, March 12, 2010

Photo Friday!

As promised, here are some of Community Site Manager Judy's awesome pictures of the students in the Thriving Minds after-school program. These were taken during their fantastic Black History Month celebration in February. What a smiley, happy bunch of kiddos!




Thursday, March 11, 2010

Guest Blog: Mills Elementary Site Manager Judy Danielson

Hello again, all!

Each day continues to be an adventure here in the Thriving Minds after-school program at Mills, and we’ve all been busy. Our third, fourth and fifth graders have been working on some excellent creative writing; they have great imaginations when they are inspired by an idea. Kindergarten, first and second graders have been doing fun arts and crafts, including some very cool bird masks and funky mirrors with frames. They’ve also been making a respect journal and discussing how important respect is in all of our lives.


We have all, staff and students, been hard at work on our Black History Month performance which took place on February 26. Our students put on a fabulous show for their families, friends and teachers highlighting the important contributions that African Americans have made, and continue to make, in the shaping of our country. The children performed African songs and dances, and portrayed famous African Americans such as Harriet Tubman and Thurgood Marshall; the girls also did a beautiful praise dance. Their parents were so very proud of them and so was I - the children were just beaming with pride! I asked some of them what the best part of the performance was for them. Most answered, “My mom said I did good,” and “I saw my daddy clapping…”

Enough said!

Stay tuned for pictures from the Black History Month celebration tomorrow on Photo Friday.
Until next time,

Judy Danielson
Community Site Manager, Mills Elementary
Thriving Minds After-School