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Class designs T-shirts to raise funds for Soroka memorial
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Thomas Merva, a pre-calculus student of the late Michael “Mickey” Soroka, shows one of 300 shirts Soroka’s students designed as a tribute to the Campbell teacher. They are selling the shirts for $7 each and have raised about $400 so far. They will use the money for a memorial.
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Modeling their shirts are Soroka’s students, from left, Tiffany Colon, Brian Austalosh, Ben Gozur, Ryan Phillips, Alex Sudacon, Thomas Merva, Chris Lopez and Jakeline Placeres. Missing from the photo are Kristy Vrona and Kaitlyn Kalicatzroa.
Class designs T-shirts to raise funds for memorial
By jeanne starmack
CAMPBELL
Most of Mickey Soroka’s pre-calculus 11th-graders were in their second-period English class when they got the news — Soroka had died a short time earlier.
Soroka, who also taught seniors calculus and supervised the multimedia program for ninth through 12th grades, had collapsed while supervising morning announcements in the multimedia lab at Campbell Memorial High School. He died a short time later after being taken from the school by an ambulance crew.
After hearing about his death, his students, who loved him, had to make their way to his room for their third-period class.
“We all put our heads down and just cried,” said Brian Austalosh, one of about 10 students who got together in the days that followed Soroka’s death to design T-shirts to fund a memorial to their teacher. Eight of the 10 got together in his old room Friday to show off the shirts, which have raised about $400 so far. They aren’t sure yet what they’ll do with the money.
They would like a plaque for the front of his room, with their favorite picture of him on it — he’s wearing his suspenders in that one, just smiling at the camera.
They’ve sold 270 of the shirts so far, and they have about 40 left in small, medium and extra-large sizes. The shirts sell for $7, and mainly, they said, they’ve been selling them to other students.
The shirts were made by Ink ’n Thread Works in Struthers for $5 apiece. “[Owner Roger Smith] gave us a real good deal,” said Thomas Merva.
The shirt-fronts feature a replica of a poster that’s still on the window outside Soroka’s classroom, explained Jakeline Placeres.
Sandwiched between calculus equations is one of Soroka’s favorite quotes: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle — A. Einstein.”
On the backs of the shirts are 15 of Soroka’s favorite sayings.
There were millions,” said Merva. “We tried to get the top 15.”
Among them: “Be a sponge, soak it up”; “Problems from HELL” and “I know you want to leave me, but I refuse to let you go.”
There is, his students said, no way to replace Soroka.
“You can find us another math teacher, but you can’t find us another Soroka,” Merva said.
“He was a fun person. Outgoing, always himself,” said Ben Gozur.
“He was more than just a teacher, he was a mentor,” said senior Tiffany Colon.