From Deseret News archives:
Students bravely help out by asking
"That is so tight!" student leaders said in admiration.
Desperate Housewives, John Travolta, Wayne Gretzky, NASCAR drivers — even the original Luke Skywalker — are shipping autographed photos, balls, jackets, helmets and the like to students at the Granite District school, all because they had the nerve to ask.
But the teens won't take the collections home.
Rather, they'll gladly give them up — all to help their school custodian.
They want to give custodian Terry Birch cochlear implants to help him reach his dream of a career in communications. They want to help his wife, Holli, who is deaf and is being treated for breast cancer, with mounting medical bills. They want to help repair the couple's aging West Valley home, where they live with their four young children — two of whom also are hard of hearing.
The students so far have raised $20,000 to do it. They hope a May 15-25 online auction for the new goods will add to the largesse.
Birch is humbled by the efforts.
"It means a lot to my family," he said. "They were all very surprised and shocked the school would do something like that for us."
As a toddler, Birch lost some hearing and sight in a bout with the measles and tonsillitis, according to the fund-raising Web site, www.Help-Terry.org. Those senses have been diminishing since, leaving him deaf in one ear and with less than 15 percent hearing in the other.
Birch desires a career in communications, be it public relations or seminar training. He studied at the University of Utah and said he enjoyed working at its student newspaper as a copy editor.
But it's getting harder for Birch to see written text anymore. And it's tough to communicate with people when he can't hear them well.
"I like to talk," Birch said. "People don't want to come up to the deaf and say anything because they're too scared."
His family also is struggling with mounting medical expenses from Holli's breast cancer treatments and needed house repairs.
Birch, 40, has worked six years at the school in a relatively behind-the-scenes job.
But once teachers and students learned he could use a hand, Birch has found himself in the school's spotlight.
Last fall, social studies teacher Mira Leffler introduced her students to "Project Citizen," with Birch as the beneficiary.
"They got so excited about it," brainstorming ways to help, Leffler said. The students finally zeroed in on an auction and a November Peter Breinholt benefit concert.
The efforts netted $17,000, she said.
But they kept going.
