Michael Quintero and his family join The Brotherhood through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, an organization that pairs children with pediatric brain tumors with collegiate athletic teams. When Michael was just two years old he was diagnosed with Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma, which involves a type of tumor that occurs in children slightly older than Michael and are rated in terms of how aggressive they are. Tumors with Grades 1 and 2 are considered benign while tumors with Grades 3 and 4 are malignant. Fortunately, Michael has a Grade 1 Glioma, which means that it is non-cancerous and is slow growing.

Michael and his family moved to Oxford from Utah during the summer of 2010 and began the process of joining the RedHawks while his dad, Mark, directs the pep band at Miami hockey games. The Quintero family got the news that they would be partnering with Miami's Hockey Team in September of 2010, and Michael got his first chance to meet with the team shortly thereafter in the locker room where he, and his younger brother, Alex, both received jerseys, hats and sticks from members of the team. Michael often attends games and occasional practices and always visits the team after games.

Resources:
The Newest Member of the Brotherhood
Our Little Michael
Friends of Jaclyn
Michael Meets the Team

Friends of Jaclyn:
The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation uses the motto "Live in the Moment...Play in the Moment" and it fits perfectly for both the children and the teams involved with the program. The RedHawks in particular should take this to heart as each year is a fresh start for The Brotherhood just as Oxford was a fresh start for the Quinteros.

The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation began when a nine-year-old-girl named Jaclyn Murphy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in March of 2004. The story goes that every time Jaclyn visited the hospital, her father would point to a picture of a lacrosse player on the wall and say, "This is going to be you someday." With a little stroke of luck, Jaclyn's current lacrosse coach knew the Northwestern women's lacrosse coach, and so Jaclyn began to form a relationship with the Wildcat coaches and players. Jaclyn's constant emails, phone calls, and texts from the team drew the attention of her suitemate in the hospital, and Jaclyn told her dad that they needed to get this girl a team as well. Since then, the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation has partnered with some of the best known athletic universities in the country. Schools such as University of Texas, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke University and University of Michigan have all joined in to help young children with pediatric brain tumors.

Head Coach Enrico Blasi on having Michael be a member of The Brotherhood:
"We're just honored to be a little part of his day and hopefully we can help him along the way and bring some excitement and joy to his day and help the family anyway we can. It's quite a story and he's as strong an individual as I've ever seen in my life and he's only a young boy. It's pretty inspiring."

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