{"id":3834,"date":"2008-05-22T21:00:36","date_gmt":"2008-05-23T01:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2008-05-22T21:00:36","modified_gmt":"2008-05-23T01:00:36","slug":"hannahs-birthday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2008\/05\/22\/hannahs-birthday-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannah's Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hannah<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael,<\/p>\n

Today at 7:11am, my youngest Hannah turned 18 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 She was a joy from the moment she careened into the world.\u00c2\u00a0 She wasted no time in getting here (3 hours, 11 minutes from start to finish) and that is how she has continued to live her life.\u00c2\u00a0 Not one moment is wasted, but not in the silly fill your time busy; a worthwhile busy.\u00c2\u00a0 She sees a need and fills it without thinking.<\/p>\n

It started early.\u00c2\u00a0 When she was in kindergarten, she thought she could benefit from weekly meetings with the Gates school guidance counselor, Mr. Brusie.\u00c2\u00a0 Her father and I had just divorced and she was really sad about it. Talking to him made her feel so good that she correctly deduced that other kids with divorced parents must be going through this as well and she could help them feel better.\u00c2\u00a0 She suggested to Mr. Brusie they invite other kids to the weekly sessions, and the Divorced Kids Support Group was born.\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Brusie and Hannah are no longer at Paul P. Gates Elementary School, but the support group still exists.<\/p>\n

She has raised countless dollars for every charity she comes across.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jumped rope and trick or treated for UNICEF.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collected books for Afghani school children.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done countless hungercropcancerhomelessshelterbatteredwomenbirthdefects walks.\u00c2\u00a0 She spent the last two summers as a counselor for under-privileged kids at the Knickerbocker YMCA camp in Maine.\u00c2\u00a0 She has been VP for 4 years of both the Jr. Rotary Club of Acton and Acton Boxborough Community Outreach, and she sits on the board of directors for the United Way.<\/p>\n

She wants to go to college in Switzerland?\u00c2\u00a0 She makes it happen!\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enter her mind that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a possibility.\u00c2\u00a0 She is good at raising money for herself too.\u00c2\u00a0 By academic merit and essay writing for scholarships, she managed to get roughly 40% of her fees reduced from the school.<\/p>\n

This kid is my hero.\u00c2\u00a0 She has done more for AB and her sphere of influence in her mere 18 years than most people do with their whole lives.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is what you can accomplish if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see what other journeys she takes herself on and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in store for the rest of her life, but I know it includes at least a dozen adopted Asian girl grandbabies for me.\u00c2\u00a0 Stay tuned\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Jen Kero Koeller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael, Today at 7:11am, my youngest Hannah turned 18 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 She was a joy from the moment she careened into the world.\u00c2\u00a0 She wasted no time in getting here (3 hours, 11 minutes from start to finish) and that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jen","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}