Joey Rogers, seen here at age 15, passed away in March 2007 at the age of 22 from Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. His mother recently donated $6,000 from The Joey Rogers Scholarship Fund to benefit the Monarch Project at Linwood Middle School. NORTH BRUNSWICK — Joey Rogers was the youngest volunteer at the Make-AWish Foundation.
At just 9 years old he had his own radio talk show called “Topic K for Kids” in his former hometown in Ocean County, which helped raise awareness for Make-A-Wish.
He also held a toy drive with Ocean County’s sheriff’s department for Make-A-Wish, providing gifts for the runaway and abandoned teens at the Harbor House and for children in abused families who were living in hotels in Seaside.
However, Joey was dealing with his own personal affliction at the time. Not expected to live past age 2, he was born with Wiskott- Aldrich syndrome, a very rare blood disorder that is caused by a mutated gene on a chromosome in males.
At the age of 7, Joey was reading his own blood results and would compare MRIs and CAT scans to note any deviation.
“He never complained about anything,” his mother, Doris, said. “He could be having the worst day ever and he would smile. … He was a great kid. He really, really was.”
Yet Joey had acquired deadly funguses from a bone marrow transplant, and in 2005 was prescribed an experimental anti-fungal drug. Joey was the only surviving patient on the drug, and was integral in having the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve its use.
Therefore, the pharmaceutical company prescribing the drug had promised a scholarship fund in Joey’s name, and this year Joey’s mother was finally able to make a donation in his name.
Joey, who passed away in March 2007 at the age of 22, spent a great deal of his childhood in North Brunswick, and now the township’s Linwood Middle School will create an outdoor classroom to study butterflies.
“My son loved monarch butterflies. He always said when a friend passed away they could come back as a monarch butterfly,” Rogers said.
With this in mind, she decided to donate $6,000 to Linwood’s Monarch Project.
“It makes me extremely happy,” Rogers said of the project. “Marj
Spangler, the organizer of the program] just loved my son profoundly. She used to think the world of him.
“He absolutely loved [Principal Pete] Clark, too. He thought he was the coolest principal he ever had,” Doris said.
Spangler could not be reached for comment.
Contact Jennifer Amato at
jamato@gmnews.com.