Fundraiser at Alexander’s to Help Kordon Family

Sten Kordon with his family on Sunday, Sept. 18, at HSHS St. Vincent Childrens Hospital. Submitted.

After a little more than three weeks in an intensive care unit, Gibraltar High School sophomore Sten Kordon is about to move to the rehabilitation floor at HSHS St. Vincent Children’s Hospital in Green Bay, reports his father, Peter Kordon.

“In a nutshell, he’s doing better than expected,” Peter said in a telephone call on Sept. 20.

On Aug. 28, Sten was tubing in the water off Fish Creek when his head collided with a steel buoy, resulting in a fractured skull and multiple facial and sinus bone fractures.

“The truth of it is, initially right when we got here after the accident and a week later, it was life and death, very questionable whether he would live, so this is pretty miraculous,” Peter said.

“Sten is really tired and worn out from a couple of weeks of being out altogether and spending the majority of time in bed, but now he is able to walk down the hall using a walker.”

The next step is full-time rehabilitation, which will include speech, cognitive, occupational and general physical therapy for Sten.

Asked how the family is doing through all of this, Peter said, “I’ll tell you, they’ve taken such great care of him and us at the new children’s hospital at St. Vincent. It’s just been unbelievable.”

Peter said the outpouring of support from the community has been equally amazing.

“A lot of people know Sten. He’s a pretty active guy. The support from the community has been just unbelievable, from every level, his classmates on up and many people who don’t even know him,” Peter said. “It’s really amazing. We thank our whole community. Sten and his brother Jon, they are our sons, but they are part of a bigger family.”

Sten plays on Gibraltar’s baseball and football teams, so his teammates have organized a fundraiser for him and his family at Alexander’s on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

“He is a great kid and comes from a great family,” said Gibraltar head baseball coach Jay Kita. “Sten has a long way to go and his parents will be there right by his side every step of the way. But they do need our help as their medical bills are adding up really fast. Bruce Alexander, from Alexander’s of Door County, has been gracious enough to give us his restaurant for a night. We are going to hold a whitefish fry with all proceeds going to Sten Kordon and the Kordon Family. Charlie Henriksen, the Weborgs and Jim Laughlin have again donated all the whitefish for this event, as they have multiple times in the past for the baseball fundraisers. We have all the other food donated for this event as well. It will be a huge event! We have Gibraltar school bus driver Dick Burress running a continuous shuttle from Gibraltar School to Alexander’s and back, for extra parking. We will be having a silent auction and money/message tree. Bridenhagan Landscaping is generously donating the tree.”

The event runs from 4 to 8 pm.

To keep up on Sten’s progress, Peter Kordon has started a journal at the Caring Bridges website, caringbridge.org/visit/stenkordon/journal.