MARMORA – Ocean City Primary School teacher Mikenzie Helphenstine lost her long battle with cancer more than two years ago, but the memory of her grows anew each year in the garden behind the school.
The former standout athlete at Ocean City High School became a teacher and coach. She is memorialized in the OCPS Helping Hands Garden that is tended by students, who see their handiwork go from planting to produce.
To ensure the garden continues to blossom, family members, fellow teachers and coaches and friends gathered Sept. 14 at Rhythm & Ride at Wayside Village in Marmora to exert themselves in spin classes – a fundraiser for the cause.
“I had the opportunity to know Mikenzie both as a colleague, coaching alongside of her, and also as a friend. Getting a chance to ride in her honor and celebrate her and her life is just something that is importance to us, not only at this time of year but throughout the year,” said Lesley Graham, who coaches the OCHS girls lacrosse team.
“I’m here to help celebrate Mikenzie. I’m Carrie Merritt’s sister so I witnessed her amazing spirit and I’m happy to be here to ride and do something that she can’t be here to do today,” Heather Connolly said after she, Graham and a group of friends chatted in the parking lot after finishing their stints on the stationary bikes.
“Mikenzie and I grew up on the sidelines coaching together,” said OCPS teacher Carrie Merritt, who coaches the OCHS softball team. “She, to me, remains one of my coaching icons and mentors and great friends.
“She was one of those friends you could absolutely battle one moment and five minutes later each of you thought about a different perspective and went back and gained a lot of of insight from.
“Riding for the OCPS Helping Hands Garden is kind of twofold,” Merritt added. “It supports our school district and helps us remember Mikenzie.”
Mikenzie’s mother, Jane Custer, was touched by everyone who participated in the event and what the garden provides.
“It is a wonderful turnout and the garden is absolutely beautiful. All the proceeds, in memory of my daughter, go the garden that was dedicated to her at the primary school,” Custer said. “Just yesterday the kids picked sweet potatoes and they have pumpkins that are so big they are going to have a contest on guessing the weight of the pumpkins. It is magnificent.”
She noted that everyone at the school does something to help in the garden, which is under the direction of Sharon Naplacic.
“This (event) helps them maintain it,” Custer said. Rhythm & Ride co-owner Emily Gillian teaches at the primary school and worked with Mikenzie.
“The funniest thing is that my daughter, like me, couldn’t grow anything,” Custer said, laughing. “And while it was her idea to rejuvenate that garden, she and Sharon Naplacic were talking and Sharon said, ‘I’ll help you.’ Mikenzie’s words to her were, ‘I’m not doing it. I’ll help you. You’re going to do it. I just think it’s a great idea.’”
The COVID pandemic had taken a toll on the garden, but with Mikenzie’s instigation and the work of Naplacic, other teachers and students, it is thriving.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous. There are so many people involved in it. Parents come and help weed it. It’s magnificent. And this event helps it thrive,” Custer said.
“They have a sale in the summer after the summer classes. They use it as a teaching thing. After that, the last day of class, they set up a little farmer’s market. Not only are they selling their produce, they’re telling you how to use it,” she explained. “And they’re also doing math because they have to make change. It incorporates so many learning things – more than anything a healthy lifestyle and just being outside.”
“We are doing this for a dear friend of Emily Gillian and Carrie Merritt,” said Emily’s wife, Kierstin Gillian, co-owner of Rhythm, & Ride. She noted how Mikenzie “was a person who used fitness as something to get through everything she was going through in life. She did a lot of it with Carrie, which was the main reason we started this because Carrie is an instructor here at the studio.
“At Rhythm and Ride we love doing anything that brings the community together,” Gillian added. “It’s our second annual one that brings so many people together from all over south Jersey.
“Mikenzie touched so many hearts and it’s amazing to see how many people come together every year for this. That is the reason. We like to give back to the community and definitely bring awareness to breast cancer,” she said.
“It’s for the Helping Hands Garden at the primary school,” Gillian said. “We let them do whatever they want with (the proceeds) and let the garden keep blossoming. The kids do it every year. It’s amazing to keep seeing it grow and build not just in honor of her name, but for the kids.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff