Endowed Scholarship Profile

Joey with his Peer Mentors and another student in the RAMS Program.

The Hart Family RAMS Peer Mentor Endowed Scholarship

The Journey “Why did it have to hurt so much?” Michelle Hart poses the anguished question. John and Michelle Hart’s journey to find the right educational setting for their son, Joey ‘23, has been a roller-coaster ride. Joey is profoundly disabled from the aftereffects of severe epileptic seizures he has suffered since the age of five months. The program offered by their neighborhood school wasn’t a fit.

Michelle recalls, “He was in a classroom at the end of the hall, strapped into his chair so that he wouldn’t fall out. There was no interaction with the student body; none whatsoever. Wanting more for Joey, we attempted to put him in our parish school, where we were told they could make it work, with special supports for him in the classroom. That didn’t work either. Some parents of the other students didn’t want that for their children. We were told ‘they didn’t want him there.’”

She pauses. “There have been a few times in our journey with Joey when words just stick in my brain, and they don’t leave. This was one of them. They didn’t want him there. It just hurt so much.”

Taking a deep breath, she continued, “So, I reached out to Jeanne Loftis, who I knew from our Mom’s group and who had been through a similar experience with her son (also named Joey), and I asked her, ‘How did you survive this?’

“Jeanne told me, ‘You trust the Holy Spirit. And you need to talk to Central Catholic because they GET IT.’

“We had talked with Central Catholic’s principal, Mr. Garrow (John Garrow ’76) years earlier, when the RAMS program was still just an idea,” Michelle recalled. “He asked us, ‘What does Joey need?’ I told him, ‘He just needs to be loved.’ Mr. Garrow understood—and this planted the seed for us. This gave us some hope.”

Hope Appears: The RAMS Program The RAMS Program at Central Catholic launched in 2015 and the Harts kept in touch with Mr. Garrow, continuing their dialogue about how to best serve their son. In the meantime, they opted to homeschool Joey during his eighth grade year.

John Hart said, “We knew Joey was not a typical RAMS student. The RAMS students are more high-functioning. We knew that it was ‘out of the box’ to believe that Joey could be a part of the RAMS Program. And, several other parish schools we’d reached out to hadn’t even returned our calls.”

Michelle continued, “So we went in to talk with Mr. Garrow, and Mary Mauldin was there, and she said, ‘Oh, of course we can take him. We have to take Joey.’” [Mary (Wilson) Mauldin ’10 is the former RAMS Program Coordinator.]

John added, “We reached out to other programs, and they had all the reasons why taking Joey wouldn’t work. But Mary’s attitude was completely different. Rather than just seeing obstacles, Mary came from the mindset of possibility.”

So, Joey Hart, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Chris ’13 and Matthew ’15, became a student at Central Catholic High School. He joined the Class of 2023, enrolling in the RAMS Program in the fall of 2019.

Michelle remembers, “On the first day of school, our two older sons both happened to be in town that day, and they went to the Back to School Mass with Joey. All of the teachers, who of course already knew Joey, came up and thanked them, saying, ‘Thank you for letting us have Joey here.’ It just kept being reaffirmed to us. This is where Joey belongs.”

The Hart Family RAMS Peer Mentor Endowed Scholarship Michelle and John Hart are the kind of people who wear their hearts on their sleeves. They also channel that emotion and energy into purposeful action, the kind of action that results in meaningful outcomes.

In the fall of 2020, the Harts, in gratitude for the RAMS Program and especially the Peer Mentors who play such an integral role in its success, decided to endow a scholarship to benefit those Peer Mentors. The Peer Mentors work to ensure that RAMS students are fully included in the life of the school. Offering one-to-one or small group support, they are trained and supported as they navigate ways to best support their RAMS student in the classroom and in social settings. Peer Mentors model friendship, leadership, and inclusivity to the entire student body.

Michelle said, “We think the Peer Mentor Program is priceless. It’s an opportunity for students to find out something about themselves that they might not know otherwise. Maybe it’s that they’re caregivers. Maybe they’ll learn that deep down, people aren’t really that different.”

John continues, “You see how these mentors impact the RAMS students, but they also impact the rest of the student body. We’ve seen it impact our sons’ friends. We knew there were scholarships for RAMS students, but what about the Peer Mentors?

“As a parent of a special needs child, to see other students talking to Joey, and interacting with him…it’s so touching and we see that with our sons’ friends. They come by the house and they say, ‘Hey Joe! How’re you doing?’ He can’t say hi to them. He doesn’t always react. But he does hear them—and to us, it touches our hearts.

“If we can bring attention to the Peer Mentors, then that’s what we want, because they are the backbone of the program. Ultimately, over the years, we’d like to grow the scholarship so that every Peer Mentor could benefit. It’s an affirmation of what they’re doing. It’s a way of saying THANK YOU.”

Michelle says, “When I think about Joey in a darkened classroom strapped into a chair all day—and now to have a group of guys go by and say, ‘Hey Joey!’—that is so wonderful. People know him! They see him! And the other RAMS students have become his protectors. They help him. They argue over who gets to push him in his wheelchair. They’re big brothers and big sisters to him as well.”

Reflections on Central Catholic John, growing emotional, recalls a wedding they recently attended. “Just this last weekend we were at a wedding of one of Christopher’s friends, a graduate of Central Catholic. Christopher was in the wedding and a bunch of the Central grads were there. Every one of those young men asked us how Joey was doing—and I think that’s part of what is special. Central Catholic helps their students develop an empathy that extends outward to and from their friends to their friends’ families.

“I think of Central Catholic’s emphasis on character and how one of their character words this year is Forgiveness. It resonates with me and the reason I say that, is when you have a child like Joey you realize so many things that we, as individuals, and as a society, get all caught up in—really are not that important. It’s also not helpful as an individual to have animosity or grudges. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that it’s a lot of wasted energy to carry that. We look at Joey and he is the purest of beings and none of those things matter.” Michelle adds, “All the words, Fairness, Forgiveness, Generosity, and Respect; they all resonate with me, but if I had to choose, I would pick Generosity. I’m not talking about monetarily, necessarily. We all have gifts we were born with and we need to share them. That includes being generous with your time, being aware of all the little things you can do that can really have an impact. You just never know.”

John adds, “One of the things we know, one of Joey’s gifts, is how he can and DOES have an impact on others.”

Michelle chimes in, “And that’s the reason we wanted him to be somewhere where he wouldn’t be hidden. God makes us all perfect, and maybe we don’t understand it, but Joey has something to share too. Central Catholic has given him an opportunity to do that. That is one of the things I told Mr. Garrow. Joey has gifts too.”

Laughing, she continues, “We live a real different day-to-day life. Our reality is really different because of Joey. He has changed our lives because we have big picture things looking at us every day, and he has given our family perspective on life. He has blessed us in so many ways.”

Central Catholic is profoundly grateful to the Hart family for sharing their story and for establishing The Hart Family RAMS Peer Mentor Endowed Scholarship. If you would like more information on how to establish an endowed fund at Central Catholic, call Ellie Dir, Vice President of Advancement or Jolyn Winczewski, Director of Scholarships and Publications at 503. 230.1056.