Metea Valley is ready to give a heart-warming welcome to “Metea has Heart”: an initiative newly introduced last year by Ann Cluxton and Josh Robinson to help provide financial support to the families of teachers Casey Solgos and Jennifer Mayerik, whose sons, Eddie Mayerik and Carter Solgos, have Congenital Heart Defects (CHD). Metea has Heart not only does the kindness of helping with the financial aspect of it, but raises awareness to CHD.

“Mr. Solgos and I were approached as both of our sons had open heart surgeries last year as a way to help our families offset the cost medical bills from these surgeries. Not only does Metea has Heart help us financially, it also helps raise awareness for Congenital Heart Defects/Disease,” math teacher Mayerik said.

“Insurance covers a lot, but not everything. However, the fundraiser was able to help cover travel expenses and the insurance expenses. For example, me and my family had to take two trips to Boston last year, the initial trip was for Carter to be seen by a medical team that would be doing the surgery on him, and we had a lot of expenses during that time: airfare, hotel, and eating expenses, which were kindly paid for with the funds we got from the T-shirts,” English teacher Casey Solgos said.

Both Carter and Eddie have undergone a series of surgeries and tests from life-threatening congenital heart disorders. CHD increasingly affects nearly 1 percent of births per year in the United States, and 25 percent with critical CHD need surgery in the first year of their life.

Eddie Mayerik (pulmonary atresia) has recently had a heart surgery towards the middle of December, and Carter Solgos (Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) is expected to have one in the next twelve months for a pacemaker replacement.

“The financial help is amazing, but the love and support that is shown from the faculty and the student body. It is truly humbling to see the support from the staff,” Mayerik said.

By wearing the Metea has Heart shirts, it builds a community of kindness, care, and support from Mustangs who share this goal of helping the Solgos and Mayerik families.

“It allows people outside of our community to see that we have a really cohesive family-like community, so I do think it brings awareness to Metea as more than a learning institution, but as a community of learners,” Solgos said.

“The one thing we’ve always done at Metea Valley as far as teachers and staff goes is to try and provide a tight knit community where we an try to lean on each other and help and support each other. The opportunity came along where we knew the situation with Carter Solgos and Eddie Mayerik, and we wanted to be able to help them so we came up with with a little fundraiser,” social studies teacher Josh Robinson said.

Students and staff will be able to buy shirts for $10 in the commons from Jan. 23 to 25 to raise awareness for the little Mustangs, and a Young Hearts for Life heart screening in the same week, on Jan. 26. 100 percent of the proceeds will be separated in half and donated to the Solgos and Mayerik families from the Metea has Heart shirts.

The Cluxton and Robinson duo have even bigger hopes set in place for this already geneous initiative in the upcoming years and weeks with a Metea has heart basketball game with the varsity team and reaching out to the larger part of the Metea community whether it is getting athletic teams involved or just in general for the recognition of Metea has Heart.

“Nothing’s more powerful than to see the students wearing the red shirts last year and black this year. I think it goes a long way towards just showing we support our staff and how much we care about our community,” Robinson said.