Tyler Kurkierewicz & "Flat Tyler's" Adventures

March 29, 2013 ~ As many of you know I have a Google+ account. I am not as active as I was early on but I am really trying to get back into the swing of it. Why you might ask... my answer is short... It's because of the amazing people I have met!

As I was looking through the various threads that people post one caught my eye. On March 27, 2013, Mike Searle posted "I'll be helping both real and "Flat Tyler" get a taste of Kansas City. Can you give him a glimpse of your part of the world?" Immediately I knew I wanted to help! I posted back and told Mike that I would be doing some traveling in the near future and would love to take "Flat Tyler" along capturing fun moments while being a total tourist. I then saw that this post originally came from Dawn Molitor and I clicked the original thread to find out this.....

"Hello friends I'm not really sure what the end result will be... here are the beginning details. 
Tyler: My daughter and son-in-laws 18 year old nephew Tyler has inoperable cancer, he has been in the hospital since Oct. He has spent most of his time in ICU and the doctors have announced that there is nothing more they can do. He will spend the rest of his days here. The Fun Details: Nicole is in the process of creating a "Flat Tyler" and we are looking for family and friends to host him. We want so much for Tyler to see the world and know the kindness of people he will never meet. The details are still being worked out, a digital file has been created for hosts to print out. You will then e-mail the photos of "Flat Tyler's" adventures back to us. The Gift: Nicole's goal is to create a book for Tyler of all of "Flat Tyler's" adventures. We know this is going to be a major time consuming project and would like to have all adventure photos turned in by April 30th.  If you are interested in hosting "Flat Tyler" please let me know. As most of you already may know my son-in-law is in the military. I am hoping he can get in touch with a Blue Angel or two to host... how cool would that be!"

As you all know I live my life by paying it forward and I feel that this is such a simple gesture to greatly impact the lives of others. One small thing like downloading "Flat Tyler" and taking a picture a day of doing something you normally would do to make the real Tyler's life just a little brighter, happier and enjoyable then why wouldn't I do this!?!? Sign me up because this is going to be just as much fun for me as it will for everyone following this story! (I can only imagine Tyler smiling at the outpouring support of the many hosts of "Flat Tyler")

Tyler Kurkierewicz

(a picture from his blog)

Tyler was diagnosed with a rare form of testicular cancer at the end of September. He started aggressive chemo treatments on Oct 1st. 4 days later, he took a turn for the worse when the cancer started choking his stomach and it perforated. He had emergency surgery on Oct 4th and was in the ICU until the end of December. He continues to be hospitalized for recovery from the stomach surgery, infections and more chemo treatments for the tumor. (Information from his blog)

So everyone that knows me knows I love St. Louis Cardinals baseball! Well as I was sitting at my desk I heard something in the back hallway. As I peeked out my office door I happen to see that "Flat Tyler" met "Flat Stan"! It appears that "Flat Stan" was showing "Flat Tyler" around and trying to get him to cheer on the St. Louis Cardinals.... What am I going to do with those two! ("Flat Stan" doesn't realize that we have to ease into getting someone to cheering for our team!) 

I think these two had a pretty good time chatting and I heard "Flat Stan" tell "Flat Tyler" that no matter who he roots for it's America's Game! (I'm so glad they are getting along!) 

So as you can see this is something we can all help out with. No matter if it's one picture a day or once during this next month every little bit helps to show Tyler there are great people in this world that care a lot about you.... many you have never met before. I will be posting things on my Google+ page, Facebook and Twitter using the hash-tag #flattyler and encourage you to do the same.  

You can follow Tyler's blog at:

http://tylerkurkierewicz.blogspot.com/  

If you rather send Tyler a card you can send it to: 

Mott's Children's Hospital 
Patient: Tyler Kurkierewicz
Floor 7, Room 32
1500 East Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 
 

Print out your own "Flat Tyler" here:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLLhmZ3RhXKaPcb9FFg0U0021vzv7VrW8X0CRqdyitlU35sl_ym7Nb6uWhlHfBOYjsf8JYWC8eCzokx4b6wSBAeOhsTCuwAz0HP6Ds_IVY80W3U0m3NgTUuJjiaU1kIL0NI4UrInsswXY/s1600/221673_10151313460496881_1302255498_n.JPG