By Julia Barcello
Make a Wish has a special place in many members of the Greenwich community’s hearts.
Steven Sudell a Western Middle School Alumni, passed away due to brain cancer at age 14 in 2018. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Steven was given the trip of his life to the Bahamas with his family.
Make-A-Wish is a non-profit organization that helps fulfill the wishes of children who suffer from critical illnesses between the ages of two and 18 years old. This international organization has 39 affiliates, and serves children in nearly 50 countries. Make-A-Wish gathers funds from individual contributions, corporation donations, grants, gifts, chapter fees, and assessments. These funds help children plan the trip of their life, all in aims to put a smile on their faces.
After Steven passed in 2018, his best friend Jack Ryan, a current Greenwich High School Senior, decided it was important to continue Steven’s legacy. This year, Jack put together an incredible documentary dedicated to Steven. Jack presented his documentary at Western Middle School to the 8th-grade class, former Western students, and Western staff, which was followed by the traditional color run called the Sudell Sprint.
In the documentary, Jack interviewed close friends of Steven, including Mr. and Mrs. Sudell, Tru Lasley, Anthony Gangi, Zach Gershon, Brandon Mark, Lindsey Sylvester, and Thomas Duffy. Opening the documentary, Mr. Sudell spoke highly of Steven, “He played a lot of golf, he played football, he enjoyed sports… he was good in the academic field, he was a smart bright young man.”
Each of Steven’s friends discussed his ability to remain positive, and to remind them about the importance of seeing the bright side. “Steven showed me what it truly meant to be positive,” stated Lindsey Sylvester.
Steven had a large impact on everyone surrounding him. While he was sick, he was able to motivate his friends and family, “it really motivated me to keep pushing through anything that gets in my way… because if Steven did it, I can too” said Anthony Gangi. Thomas Duffy similarly discussed how Steven helped him adopt the attitude of striving to constantly make achievements and to persevere through tough times.
Following this, each friend, including Mr. Sudell, spoke about a fond memory they have of Steven. These emotional memories brought the audience to tears. Mr. Sudell expressed a poignant memory demonstrating Stevens’s ability to remain compassionate, “there was a mother and father of a sick child… and Steven was in his wheelchair, and the mother was deeply depressed, crying about her child… Well Steven reached out his arms and said ‘come over here’ and he gave her a hug’, then he said ‘I love you’, and he said ‘everything’s going to be okay’.”
Jack has been working one-on-one with the Make-A-Wish Foundation over the past school year (2021/22) to honor Steven’s legacy at Western Middle School. He was able to raise nearly $6,000 through the Sudell Sprint for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Jack explained that the main goal of this project was to help children like Steven “especially during a time where it is more difficult to provide trips for all these children” stated Jack.
One way you can honor Steven and help children like him, is to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation whether that’s through a personal donation or holding a small event to donate the funds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
