Mike Kersjes - A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Special Education Teacher, His Class, and Their Inspiring Journey Through U.S. Space Camp

Praise for A Smile as Big as the Moon

Kersjess refreshing, heartwarming account proves that faith and vision can yield great things.

Publishers Weekly

A moving, true-life account.... Genuinely inspirational.

Booklist

Like the U.S. Space Program, this is a compelling story that shows what can be accomplished when you are only limited by imagination and ingenuity. The reader can readily sense the personal dedication and love that Coach has for his students.

Bob Springer, astronaut

Those of us who have witnessed Mikes wonderful work are very happy that it is evident and celebrated in this great book.

Tom Rooney, president of Team Lemieux, LLC

A Smile as Big as the Moon is a terrific book. At once uplifting and thought provoking, it pulls no punches in depicting the hardships encountered by a group of special education students and the teacher who believed in them. A remarkable and unforgettable story.

Jerry Bruckheimer

MICHAEL KERSJES with Joe Layden

A SPECIAL EDUCATION
TEACHER,
HIS CLASS, AND THEIR
INSPIRING JOURNEY
THROUGH
U.S. SPACE CAMP

St. Martins GriffinNew York

A SMILE AS BIG AS THE MOON: A SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER, HIS CLASS, AND THEIR INSPIRING JOURNEY THROUGH U.S. SPACE CAMP. Copyright 2002 by Michael Kersjes and Joe Layden. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kersjes, Michael E.

A smile as big as the moon : a special education teacher, his class, and their inspiring journey through U.S. space camp / Mike Kersjes with Joe Layden.1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-312-27314-2 (hc)

ISBN 0-312-30314-9 (pbk)

I. Special educationUnited StatesCase Studies. 2. Handicapped childrenEducation (Secondary)United StatesCase studies. 3. U.S. Space Camp (Huntsville, Ala.) 4. Kersjes, Micheal E. I. Layden, Joseph, 1959- II. Title.

LC3969.4.K47 2002

371.9'0473'092dc21

2001048779

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

This book is dedicated to all special-needs children
and their families, who work so hard
every day to hold their vision steady...
until their dreams become reality.

This true story took place more than ten years ago, so the dialogue has been reconstructed. The names and certain identifying characteristics of the following participants have been changed: Denise Boitano, Andrea Burke, Ross Fullerton, Shannon Hathaway, Tom Keller, Grant Plunkett, Marge Sheffield, Rebecca Shriver, Karen Treffiletti, Mark Tyler, and David Ward.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following people for their positive spirit and support in helping me and our special-needs children reach for the stars.

I would like to start by thanking Daniel Trierweiler and Burger King for believing that the underdogs could win. To my teaching partner, Robynn McKinney, who kept a level head and positive outlook through the good and bad times.

To my wife, Darcy, and my sons, Shawn and Ryan, who tried to understand my dreams and the obsession I have with Space Camp.

My mentor, Dr. Lynn Bondurant, and his wife, Kay, who opened so many doors for us. To all the Space Is Special board members, especially our chairman, Robert Springer, and his wife, Debbie, and our vice president, JoAnne Kochneff, and her husband, Doug.

I also want to thank Dr. Michael Washburn for giving Robynn and me the opportunity to pursue our dreams, as crazy as it might have seemed to so many other people. To Linda Vanderjagt, my current supervisor, for helping me make the right decisions toward the growth of our program.

To Mr. Larry Capps, CEO of the Space & Rocket Center, and the entire Space Camp administration and staff, for their hard work and dedication in helping to give these children an experience of a lifetime.

I would also like to thank the following for their funding and support: Mr. Edson (Ted) Arneault, CEO for the Mountaineer Race Track & Resort, and Mr. Ted Dragisich, who have brought our program into the state of West Virginia; the entire Pittsburgh Penguins organization, especially Mario Lemieux and Chief Operating Officer Tom Rooney; Martin Wegener and Peter Riley, from the New England Financial Group, and their entire staff for their ongoing fund-raising efforts.

To Sandy Colegrove, for caring that all children have a chance in life.

To Bobbi Peterson, Peggy Brumley, Shelley DiCesare, and Melissa Slendak, for keeping my travel plans straight.

To Frank and Jodi Stanley, for their continued support.

To all of the people who helped make this book a reality: Mickey Freiberg, my agent, who never gave up and is always there for me; Frank Weimann of the Literary Group, who brought Joe Layden to our team; Neil Russell, for being with us through the good and bad times; Homer Hickham, who connected me with the right people so that our story could be told.

To Joe Layden, who was so dedicated in writing this story.

To St. Martins Press, and especially its publisher, Sally Richardson, who understood my vision. To my editors, Michael Denneny and Christina Prestia, who worked so closely with Joe and me in shaping this book.

Thanks to all the Forest Hills Northern special-needs students portrayed in this book, and to the rest of their classmates, for making my first trip to Space Camp such a memorable experience.

Finally, I would like to thank my mother for instilling within me the drive and passion to never give up... regardless of the odds.

Great spirits have always encountered
violent opposition from
mediocre minds.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

PART ONE

MAY 7, 1989

After two layovers and nearly ten hours of travel, the cabin is quiet. The serving carts are gone, the flight attendants seated for our descent. Were cruising along at ten thousand feet, about to begin the final leg of an extraordinary quest that has spanned a year and a half. I look around at them now, twenty kids between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, some slumped down in their seats, sleeping, exhausted even before the game begins, others with their faces pressed into the windows, the glass fogging with each anxious breath. This morning, when we boarded the first plane in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they were a wild and frenetic bunch, so excited they could barely stand still. A decision was made then that the adults in our groupme, my wife, my teaching partner, a couple of aides from our classroomwould be distributed evenly throughout the cabin, to comfort and reassure those who hadnt flown before and, more important, to make sure that all hell didnt break loose at the top of the world.

Seems silly now, for the trip has been blissfully uneventful. Not one air sickness bag needed, not one kid injured on a moving walkway, not one smoke alarm accidentally or otherwise activated... not a single flight attendant or pilot traumatized. Twenty kids from five different schools, each with some type of learning disability, and so far, at least, they have been model citizens. There is Steve, the boy whose flatulence and mischievousness can sometimes, but not always, be attributed to his battle with Tourettes syndrome; Lewis, the wiry and angry kid who has lived in twenty-seven foster homes; Marion, whose inability to focus and concentrate is due at least in part to her ongoing struggle with leukemia; Ben, a sweet-natured boy with Downs syndrome; Stephanie, a tall and awkward girl with a ferocious temper; Scott, a dyslexic kid who is trying to live up to his fathers grand expectations; and Mark, a dead ringer for Alfalfa on the old television show