Turning tragedy into hope

BROWN COUNTY – After Remi Patel passed away at the end of January, his parents have started the Remi Fund, a way to support Syble Hopp School, where Remi had been a student.
“Remy was born in 2008 and he was about 10 weeks premature,” said Mark Patel, Remi’s father and owner of Luna Coffee Roasters. “He was born with cerebral palsy and we spent like 10 weeks in the NICU at St. VIncent’s.”

Remi began attending Syble Hopp School starting in 2011 and continued until his passing.
“He started attending Syble Hopp in 2011,” Mark said. “He was unable to go sometimes due to health issues along the way where he wasn’t able to go to school, but he went pretty consistently until about a year ago.”

“As he got older, he was diagnosed with more and more issues which came with the initial problems that he had at birth — epilepsy and pretty serious respiratory illnesses, really bad asthma. Because he didn’t walk, there’s a lot of issues that come with that,” Mark said. “As he got older, it just got worse and worse and in the last year, we spent a lot of time in the hospital. He had his good days within the last year, but it was mostly a decline.”

After spending several months in the hospital over the summer, Mark said Remi came home on hospice care and passed away at the end of January.

After sharing the news of Remi’s passing on Luna Coffee Roasters’ Facebook page, the family received an outpouring of support. Now, they’re making plans to share that support with the community that has shown so much support for them.

“We have been overwhelmed with messages of love since Remi’s passing three weeks ago,” a recent Luna Coffee Roasters’ Facebook post read. “Many have asked about the Remi Fund that we are starting and for what the funds will be used. Remi attended Syble Hopp School in De Pere from 2011 until his passing. The incredible staff and students at Hopp are Remi’s peeps, always had his back, and created a second family for Remi where he was loved simply for who he was.”

“There’s a really strong community [at Syble Hopp] and it kind of feels like an extension of that and the time that he spent there,” Mark said. “It’s nice because it’s a way to keep his name going and have something positive come out of something more tragic. We can do a lot of positive things in his name.”

Even before Remi attended school there, the Patels were involved with Syble Hopp, bringing musical performances to the students there — something they hope to continue doing with the Remi Fund.

“For about 20 years we’ve been doing music visits to the school where it’ll either be a band that we know or a band that is coming through and playing somewhere else and we’ll arrange for them to play at the school,” Mark said. “We take care of everything as far as paying the band and arranging the concert and everything, so we’ll be able to do more of those. And also helping families at the school that are going through similar things that we went through — long hospital stays and some complications that can come with that.”
Mark said he hopes Remi’s story and the Remi Fund can be used to, “Give other people hope, even when they face really difficult situations.”

“A lot of those kids in Syble Hopp are facing pretty challenging hurdles, but they have great support at the school and with their families,” Mark said. “I know we’re not the first people to have a fund like this and contribute to the school. It’s a really big community of people that can help these students as they face some pretty big challenges at such young ages. Hopefully, with this fund, Remi’s name can play a part in that.”

More information about the Remi Fund can be found on Luna Coffee Roasters’ Facebook page.