WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 25, 2018 27
BUZZ
Maspeth rallies around local girl with Leukemia
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM\
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Maspeth residents, along with
faculty and students from
Maspeth High School, are
creating a movement in support of a
graduate who was recently diagnosed
with leukemia.
On Dec. 15, aft er weeks of trying to
fi gure out why she was getting frequent
colds and broken blood vessels
in her legs, 20-year-old Julia Kammerer
was diagnosed with Acute B Cell
Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Her family
was devastated, said her sister Jaclyn
Kammerer, who was at work when she
heard the news.
“I thought maybe she had pneumonia,
I didn’t think it would be something
this serious,” Kammerer said. “I
was freaked out when she called me
because she normally texts. She was
sobbing and couldn’t even say it, but
when she did, I just dropped to the
fl oor.”
One month aft er the diagnosis, Jaclyn
Kammerer decided to start a Go
Fund Me page on Wednesday to raise
money for her sister’s hospital expenses.
She debated about it for quite some
time, she said, not wanting to “be too
forward or ask people for too much.”
But by Friday, the campaign had
already received 253 donations for a
total of $15,182 in less than two days.
Maspeth High School quickly
joined the movement, sharing Jaclyn’s
message and the link to the
campaign on the school’s website.
Julia Kammerer is a member of the
school’s fi rst graduating class of 2015.
When Kammerer was a freshman in
2011, the class created a special bond
with the faculty since they were the
only students in the school during its
founding year, said Athletic Director
Jesse Pachter.
“I don’t know if there was ever a day
that she was unhappy,” Pachter said.
“She was Maspeth High School.”
Pachter explained that the school is
coming up with several ideas to continue
helping the Kammerer family.
When he spoke to QNS over the phone
on Friday, Pachter said that he was
with a group of students and they had
just ordered 500 rubber bracelets to
sell and donate all of the proceeds to
the Go Fund Me campaign. The bracelets
read, “Stay Strong #TeamJules.”
Maspeth High will also be donating
the admission sales from its fi rst
home playoff basketball game to Julia’s
cause, Pachter said. Several teachers
have also been going around the
school during the day collecting any
donations.
According to Jaclyn Kammerer,
Julia has been receiving steroids and
chemotherapy for the past month
and is currently admitted to Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
in Manhattan. Julia’s last round of inpatient
chemotherapy was last week
and her fi nal bone marrow biopsy
will be next week, Jacklyn said. Aft er
that, Julia should be able to return to
the comfort of her home and visit the
hospital two or three times a week for
treatments.
Through all of that, Jaclyn said that
her sister has maintained the same
sassy and humorous personality that
so many people love her for. And even
more importantly, she is inspiring all
those around her.
“She’s my little sister, but she’s someone
I can look up to,” Jaclyn Kammerer
said. “I never knew that she was so
strong.”
Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Kammerer
Julia Kammerer, 20, was diagnosed with leukemia on Dec. 15 and the
community is rallying in support.
German-American school in Ridgewood closes
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
A longstanding Ridgewood
school has been forced to relocate
aft er changing demographics
in the area led to a drastic decline in
enrollment, a school offi cial said.
The German-American School Association,
which had one of its locations on
Fresh Pond Road for 50 years, closed its
doors for good in December 2017 aft er
just seven students signed up for the fall
semester. According to a press release
from the organization, the school’s remaining
students and faculty will now
be merged with its three other locations
in Manhattan and Long Island.
“Leaving the Ridgewood area is
indeed sad,” said Dr. Ursula Beitter,
a curriculum adviser for the school.
“We have ties with businesses,
churches and the families whose
children graduated from our Ridgewood
location.”
The German American School is a
not-for-profit after-school program
that meets once a week to teach children
the German language. The school is
open to people of all backgrounds, but
the declining population of German
descendants in Community District 5
ultimately hurt the school. The decrease
in enrollment happened gradually, Dr.
Beitter said, and posting signs in multiple
languages and advertising in the local
papers wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
Ridgewood and Glendale were
popular settlements for German
immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s,
and at one point they accounted for
the majority of the local population.
As of 2016 there were approximately
10,000 people of German ancestry in
Community District 5, just 5.8 percent
of the region’s population, according
to a United States Census estimate.
The German American School on Fresh Pond Road is closing due to low
enrollment.
The citywide estimate from 2016
shows that 3 percent of the total population
is of German descent, yet as
one of the most diverse cities in the
world there is no ethnicity with a population
higher than 7.3 percent. Still,
the German-American School Association
is hopeful that its Ridgewood
Image via Google Maps
students will be able to continue
learning in their new environments.
“For our school, the glass is half
full,” the press release said. “We
are optimistic that our students will
enjoy their new surroundings, make
new friends, and continue with their
German-language education.”
