Student led poroject promotes advocacy for hemophilia

DECA projects are common within Central, but this year’s community service endeavor has been especially prominent. Due to a teacher’s situation within the school, a project idea has been ignited in hopes of support and advocacy of a nation-wide cause.
Close The Gap is a student-led mission created by Bria Gilmore, Lydia Baum and Christina Gilmore to support the National Hemophilia Organization. Joseph Mickeliunas is a humanities teacher at Central, whose two-year old son has hemophilia. His family’s battle with the blood disease inspired Baum and the project’s creation.
The project stemmed from the result of Mick’s constant battle for his son’s health. “in academic Decathlon last year, Mr. Mick was gone a lot” Baum said, “he was talking about his son Elliott… we wanted to ask him if there’s anything we could do”. The following year, the girls decided to act upon this situation by starting a project that raises awareness for Hemophilia.
“Lydia and Bria came to me and just said ‘we have an idea and we want to do something to help your family’” Mick said. Eventually this supportive idea became a community-wide project that is raising money for research and treatment of Hemophilia nation-wide.
Raising awareness is the overall goal of the project. “A lot of people didn’t even know that Mr. Mick’s son suffered from hemophilia, so I felt good about introducing people to what hemophilia is and how they can help”, Baum said. Since the beginning of the school year the project has raised funds for it’s cause.
Hemophilia is a blood disease that reduces the ability of a person’s blood to clot. When a “factor” treatment is received, the patient’s blood is temporarily able to clot. When blood clots, the gaps in the blood are closed, resulting in the project’s name: Close The Gap.
Mick supports the project and its intentions fully, “my wife and I were just overjoyed that the students cared enough to do something for our family” Mick said. Not only is the project advocating for the Mickeliunas family, but also for the hemophilia community as a whole, “raising awareness for hemophilia is a huge thing, even just within our school community” Baum said.
To support and help organize this project, Victoria Wiles has taken on the role of the girls’ advisor. “I just guide them on deadlines and give them ideas of things that they can do” Wiles said. The girls have guidance, but they have their own input in much of the project. “Bria’s done a great job with ordering stuff and coming up with ideas,” Wiles said, “she’s the real leader among the three”.
With a goal of 3,000 dollars to be raised for the National Hemophilia Foundation, the girls are not done fundraising, although they have started accumulating funds already. Through events such as the Halloween talent bash and the sale of Close The Gap buttons, their goal of advocacy and awareness has progressed throughout the school year.
The project is not over yet, as the girls plan to bring their ideas with them to state DECA this year. The academic side of the project could not be completed without the full benefits of the community service aspects that have been received by Mick along with the Nebraska advocacy board for hemophilia. “We just kind of feel like we’re not as alone” Mick said, “it really helps build our community because it is something that is so rare, so we appreciate people getting involved with the charity side of it”.
The leaders of Close The Gap hope to continue with the success they have had. “Even after we graduate, we hope people will still support the cause” Baum said. Overall, the Close The Gap project has achieved its goals. “It makes me happy to come here every day” Mick said, “it has just shown me the love that Central has”.