West Essex 7th Graders Honor Their Heroes

West Essex Middle School celebrated "Hero Day" with a special assembly and breakfast last week.

As part of their health curriculum, each seventh-grader wrote about his or her hero and invited them to the special assembly. The event featured speakers, a slide show tribute to all of the heroes and a bagel breakfast.

Holocaust surivor Michael Bornstein, the youngest known survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, told students how he and his family in Poland had to wear armbands identifying themselves as Jews. He and his family were transported in a cattle car to Auschwitz where his brother and father were killed.

Bornstein said his grandmother hid him in a mattress when the children at the camp were killed. His message to students is "not to give up, when life seems too difficult."

High School Wrestling Coach Michael Markey told students how he survived a liver transplant, a ruptured artery, five more surgeries, 11 blood transfusions, the removal of his gall bladder, medications , blood test, sepsis and actue kidney failure.

He told students, "I've learned that a hero can be anyone. I have learned that you can never underestimate the impact a good deed can have on some one else, it doesn't matter how small it may be."

Max Prince wrote an essay about his hero, his 9-year-old brother Sam, who has had many major medical disabilities and most recently had a heart transplant.

"Sam's disabilities unfortunately allow him to face many obstacles that other children don't have and these obstacles make Sam every more determined to succeed," Max said.

Before his transplant, he did not have the stamina to go to school for a full day. "He could not do many of the things that most kids his age could do." After his transplant, Sam has learned to swim and "the doctors say once his body gets used to the new heart, Sam will be able to do most things kids his age can."