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Associates to the AAAAI:  Asthma Scholarship Program Award of Excellence

Scholarship winner turns disease into poetry
Jeremy Voorhees - 2002 Associates to the AAAAI (Spouses and Friends) "Award of Excellence Asthma Scholarship" WinnerThe AAAAI received more than 1,000 applications received for the 2002 Associates to the AAAAI (Spouses and Friends) "Award of Excellence Asthma Scholarship
" program. Jeremy Voorhees' application essay put a new twist on living with asthma and achieving one' s fullest potential.

Voorhees, a high school senior from Grand Rapids, MI, explained his life experiences dealing with asthma in a uniquely personal poem. For his efforts, Associates members selected him as the 2002 Tanner McQuiston Memorial Scholarship recipient.

Voorhees' poem describes his struggles with the wheezing, coughing and other symptoms that accompany allergies and asthma. He intimately describes his accomplishments in music, hockey and Eagle Scouts despite his disease.

Receiving the Associates' scholarship came as a welcome surprise, Voorhees said. "I am so honored to receive this scholarship. It will help a lot with my college education, thus allowing me to progress further towards my goals," he said. "I hope that others, like me, will not let it forbid them from meeting their dreams. No one should have sit out at any time in their life due to a

medical condition. People with asthma can accomplish as much, if not more, than everyone else in the world. Keeping in mind that young leaders will eventually run America, it is essential to confront asthma and to teach children with asthma what they can accomplish."

Voorhees plans to use his scholarship to pay for first-year tuition expenses at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, where he is already enrolled in summer courses. Printed below is Voorhees' winning essay.

"Achoo and Gesundheit"
A documentary poem by Jeremy Voorhees

In spite of asthma, there was lots I could do
With headaches and allergies both past and new
I liked full games of swimming, skating and ball
And played them with friends in summer, spring and fall

So I coughed and sneezed
and regularly wheezed,
Until my mom took me to an allergist who had needles galore,
And who attacked my back until I cried
"No more!"

The shots on my back when that was over
Resembled a great big four leaf clover
Then I heard the word
"Shots"
The first time I had one it hurt lots and lots

Still I kept wheezing
Until my doctor gave me pills to regulate my sneezing
And an inhaler, with words to breathe deep
As through my lungs the medicine could creep

But I stopped coughing, gagging, and sneezing
And I said goodbye to my wheezing
On to a better life I could pass
When my eyes wouldn't
swell when I would cut the grass

I entered a Middle School and could play them all -
Soccer, cross-country and basketball
I now can go Boy Scout camping
in spring, summer, winter and fall

I go outside with my dog and hike
And do all the things I still like
Summers were a different sort
When in-line skating I started to sport

I learned to roller blade, jump and grind
I even fell many times on my behind
Now that I am almost out of school
I must tell you why high school is cool

Playing tuba, trumpet, sousaphone to challenge my lungs
Now my music may be played in many different tongues
From roller to ice skates, from golf games to ice
The challenges I have made have turned out quite nice

Hockey it seems is just right for me
My team may not win, but it let
' s me be free
Eagles fly high and this I know
And with my Eagle Scouts badge I continue to grow

My daily routine could cause grown men to cry
I am grateful completely as the years go by
This fall I move on, college bound here I come, with inhaler, weekly
shots, a bag of meds and an attitude for fun.

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