At 14 years old, Simon Fieler is looking to make his mark on the world.
The St. Agnes School eighth grader is class president and launched a toy drive for Child Life, a program that supports patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. When he was younger, Fieler was also a patient there.
“I did a toy drive when I was five, after I got out of the hospital,” Simon said. “I had been in the hospital for like 6 months for aplastic anemia. During that time, the people in the Child Life program gave me toys to play with and programs that kept me busy. My mom helped me when I was released and we donated over 210 toys to the program.”
He has been in remission from his aplastic anemia, but has to be tested on a regular basis to make sure it doesn’t come back. There is no cure for aplastic anemia, just remission. He never forgot that time in the hospital, and as he got older, he vowed to help the program and more kids.
“I wanted to do one big thing that would be a legacy for our class,” Simon said. “I told the kids what kind of toys we wanted and everybody pitched in. We were able to take 588 toys to Children’s Hospital today!”
Even though this is a project that Simon has been working on for awhile, he is not a young man who sits around working on one project.
Simon is a multi-tasker, and he is proud of it.
He tried out for his class play, Beauty and the Beast, and he won the part of the Baker. He also tried out for the Passion Play that St. Agnes puts on every year, and he was assigned the role of Jesus. Fieler was not dismayed at the size of the sandals he was expected to fill; Simon knew he could do it.
Simon is on the A-honor roll, and is an anchor for the Wildcasters, a student-run morning broadcast at the school.
Additionally, he dabbles in golf and volleyball, but he acknowledged that tech is his real love.
Fieler thinks he will go into engineering when he grows up, but he hasn’t given up the idea of being a doctor. He credits his two grandpas for being influential in his life; one taught him about electricity, and one about plumbing.
His neighbor does DJ work, and Simon was impressed, so he procured a laptop, bought an app, and announced he had a DJ business. He has spun songs for a father/daughter dance, and has played for the PTA at Ballyshannon School.
“Simon is an ‘old soul’,” said his mother, Stephanie. “He isn’t bossy, but he is driven. He always takes the lead in things. He is hard-working, independent, and his own person. He is influential, but he has good intentions.”
Simon will go to Covington Catholic next year. He is excited that they have a new technology program, and although he thinks it might be scary to be in such a large school, he feels that he will become acclimated fairly quickly.
He is encouraged by his classmates, and agrees that he has a lot of friends.
“Everybody likes me,” he said confidently.
Written by Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor
