{"id":12701,"date":"2014-05-14T17:39:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T17:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/independentweekender.com\/?p=12701"},"modified":"2014-05-21T16:53:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T16:53:01","slug":"prom-wish-realized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/","title":{"rendered":"Prom wish realized"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mike<\/a>

Mike and Sandy Schwenk, of Montrose, share the first dance at the Montrose Area High School prom held Friday at Stone Hedge Country Club in Tunkhannock. Mike has an incurable disease and it was his wish to take his wife to the prom \u2013 something she did not do in high school. STAFF PHOTO\/ROBERT BAKER<\/p><\/div>\n

BY STACI WILSON<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>
\nAs the music began to play Heatwave\u2019s \u201cAlways and Forever,\u201d Mike and Sandy Schwenk, of Montrose, stepped out onto the floor for the first dance at the Montrose Area Junior-Senior Prom.<\/p>\n

Sandy, a 1987 Montrose Area graduate, didn\u2019t attend the prom in high school. It was her husband\u2019s wish to give her that magical experience.<\/p>\n

Mike was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis in 1995, an incurable disease where tumors grow on his nerve endings. He has over 200 tumors in his abdomen that cause severe pain. Those tumors were discovered in 2011 with a cat scan, when Mike\u2019s health took a turn for the worse. Every six weeks, they travel to Hershey where Mike receives chemotherapy in hopes to slow the progression of the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cChemo may be slowing the progress of the disease but to date there is no cure and everything that they are doing as far as treatment is experimental,\u201d Sandy said.<\/p>\n

He has now been in hospice six different times. Mike said, \u201cLast year, during my third or fourth hospice, I tried to think of one last thing that I could do to show Sandy how much I love her and how much she means to me. I knew she had never gotten to go to her prom, so that is how it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sharing<\/a>

Sharing the first dance.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mike contacted the school and asked if they would allow the couple to attend. After several months, the school gave its approval. \u201cThey even came to our house to hand deliver the tickets and invite us personally,\u201d Mike said.
\nBut getting to prom was no easy task for the Schwenks.<\/p>\n

Mike was in Endless Mountains Health Systems and transferred to Geisinger Wyoming Valley on the Monday before the prom to start taking nutrition intravenously. Because of the tumors and the pain involved with eating, he now weighs about 80 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeisinger Wyoming Valley did so many things in order for his dream of taking me to prom come true,\u201d Sandy said.<\/p>\n

\"SANDY<\/a>

SANDY and MIKE SCHWENK<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMike just got out of the hospital Friday morning, so making it there was a dream come true,\u201d Sandy said. \u201cWe had people picking up the tux, ordering flowers and even Geisinger Wyoming Valley hospital had someone fill Mike\u2019s prescriptions so we would be able to worry about getting ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of his weight loss, the tux pants didn\u2019t fit but he had a white suit at home. The last hour of getting ready was spent hemming pants that would fit with a belt.<\/p>\n

From there, the night was magical for the couple who have been married for the past decade.<\/p>\n

Montrose Area High School Principal Mike Boccella told the school board Monday night that the Schwenks had a special \u201csweetheart table\u201d set for them.<\/p>\n

As Mike and Sandy danced, the students surrounded the dance floor and joined in at the end of the song, Boccella said.<\/p>\n

Returning to school Monday, the principal said that more than several students said having the Schwenks attend was the \u201chighlight of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Mike was able to dance was huge,\u201d Sandy said. \u201cHe has gotten so weak in the past week, that for him it was a long three minutes but we both will treasure the moment and the joy of it all being possible. It was like a dream you can only imagine the joy and gratitude felt the moment we were able to share our first dance together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike a 1985 graduate of Lebanon High School thanked everyone who made the night possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only try to explain the joy you have brought us,\u201d Mike said. He also thanked the graduating class. \u201cWe truly appreciate their understanding and willingness to make a dream come true for someone else. I only wish there was a way that we could repay them for their kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY STACI WILSON As the music began to play Heatwave\u2019s \u201cAlways and Forever,\u201d Mike and Sandy Schwenk, of Montrose, stepped out onto the floor for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nProm wish realized - PS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prom wish realized - PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY STACI WILSON As the music began to play Heatwave\u2019s \u201cAlways and Forever,\u201d Mike and Sandy Schwenk, of Montrose, stepped out onto the floor for...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-14T17:39:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-21T16:53:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/WGSI_Schwenk_firstdance2-1024x754.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"754\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/\",\"name\":\"Prom wish realized - PS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/WGSI_Schwenk_firstdance2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-14T17:39:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-21T16:53:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/05\/14\/prom-wish-realized\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/WGSI_Schwenk_firstdance2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/WGSI_Schwenk_firstdance2.jpg\",\"width\":2823,\"height\":2081,\"caption\":\"Mike and Sandy Schwenk, of Montrose, share the first dance at the Montrose Area High School prom held Friday at Stone Hedge Country Club in Tunkhannock. 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