Lowell Community Teacher Needs Our Support

Hi, I am Kristin Whitten. My sister Alisha Sage is known to MANY Lowell Area Schools littles as, Miss Alisha. For the last 7 years Miss Alisha has been teaching 3 - 4 year old's at Curiosity Corner Preschool at Yeiter Learning Center. Lowell families can recognize her smile and gentle disposition, but very few may know her painful and extremely costly journey to avoid a traumatic and arduous back surgery. Alisha put up a BRAVE fight but in the end, Degenerative Spine Disease won the war.

On the morning of Saturday October 26th, Alisha was completing an household kitchen chore, as every Mom of 4 children does, and bent over for the last time for a long time. Shifting of vertebrae in her back caused instantaneous and permanent damage that includes loss of feeling in extremities, swelling, pain, and extreme mobility limitations. After spending 6 days at Corewell Health's Butterworth hospital and thousands of dollars in medical care she was medically released home. Correspondence between surgeons and health insurance providers concluded with a laundry list of hoops and loops Alisha must make it through before approving the extensive surgery to insert a bionic amount of metal into Alisha's back. To ensure quality of life and mobility for Alisha, she will have physical therapy, mobility assistance, office co-pays, family deductible amounts, medication costs, home nursing invoices and yet to be discovered places in the American Health System. For example, surgical costs will total over $10,000, and that is just the beginning.

This teacher's heart is breaking over the moments and memories that will be missed with her littles, but it is time for Miss Alisha to care for herself and she needs our support to do just that! We are asking for our community to rally around this beloved educator, caregiver and mother in her time of need. We, Alisha's family, say Thank You for everyone's kindness, generosity and continued support for the Sage Family.