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A Few Clouds Seeking his inspiration
Theissen searches for girl who is reason for children’s foundation
Over the last quarter century, the John Theissen Children’s Foundation has helped countless children through tens of millions of dollars’ worth of donations. Now, the foundation’s leader is trying to find the girl who inspired it all.
Theissen is searching for Tasha, the girl who was frequently in his room when he was hospitalized for brain surgery his senior year of high school. He knows that finding her is going to be tough, but running a foundation devoted to supporting sick and underprivileged children has taught him to be hopeful.
“Tasha was always in my room,” he said of the girl who was then 7 years old, and would be 34 today. “She was always by my side.”
Theissen, 44, of Seaford, has been circulating a picture of him sleeping in his hospital room after his surgery, with a bandage on his nose, and Tasha by his side, smiling. He was admitted to Schneider Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park (now Cohen Children’s Medical Center) on Dec. 8, 1988, to be treated for a brain tumor. His surgery was the following day. He went home after about a week and eventually recovered.
While he and his mother met with his surgeon and nurse, he remembers Tasha, in her pajamas, briefly walking in. Over the next several days, she would be by his side. When Theissen couldn’t go to the Christmas party there because he was still recovering, his mother brought Tasha. She asked Santa for a teddy bear for her new friend. That act of kindness sparked his interest in helping children and inspired the logo for his foundation of a young girl holding a bear.
What Theissen knows is her first name, the dates she was at the hospital and the floor she was on. He doesn’t know her last name, where she was from or what she was being treated for. In his effort to find her, he has turned to the media and has hired two private investigators.
He said he is unsure if she survived her illness, and is prepared for the possibility that she might not have. It was a fear of that porospect that Theissen said kept him from searching for Tasha in the past, but with his foundation turning 25 this year, it is time to find out.
