Columbus North senior Keirsten White believes in wishes — so much so that she once left 100 pennies at a Columbus fountain saying, “Your next wish is on me.”

It was that kind of spirit that moved White to do something to help the family of classmate Josh Speidel following his Feb. 1 car accident near Taylorsville.

Speidel has been in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, recovering from a skull fracture and a broken jaw. He also had a procedure to reduce pressure on his brain.

Speidel’s car collided with an SUV, a collision so severe that firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to pop open the door to his Honda Accord and peel off the roof in order to get him out.

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As accident details emerged that night, White said she was awakened by multiple text messages on her phone from friends about the accident.

She isn’t close friends with the high school basketball star — more of a friend of his best friends at North, she explained. But she felt she had to do something.

So the next morning, she set up a fund on the online site gofundme.com to help her classmate’s family.

It was something she had never attempted before and something she never expected to be successful, she said.

She used the #JoshStrong moniker adopted by Speidel’s friends and a black-and-white senior-class portrait of Josh’s face behind a basketball.

With the push of a computer key, the online site was born. She set her goal at $1,000, although White said she never expected to get that much.

Her fears were initially confirmed when about $25 was donated the first day, as Speidel’s family, friends and classmates were shocked at the news that Columbus North’s all-time leading scorer and a University of Vermont recruit was in a medically induced coma.

But the 17-year-old was about to receive the surprise of her life through the oddest of alliances.

‘Let’s raise some money’

Former Indiana University basketball player and coach Dan Dakich mentioned the Speidel fund on his afternoon sports show Feb. 2 on WFNI radio in Indianapolis.

That was followed by an impromptu radiothon Feb. 3 when Dakich declared, “Let’s raise some money,” and fans around the state responded.

The total in the fund has climbed steadily since then, from $5,000 early on to $45,000 as of Tuesday night. Many of the online donations include notes to Speidel and his family, offering well wishes from across the country.

At first, White just had a few words thanking those who donated, but then she decided to get more personal.

Part of that came from thinking about her dad Keith White’s work for Fletcher Chrysler in Franklin and a donation that came from the dealership.

She decided to write a personal message to each of the more than 400 people who have donated to the fund so far. She ended each message with “we are #joshstrong.”

The amount in the fund is far beyond anything she dreamed of, she said.

“It’s more than just me,” she said of the hundreds of people who have donated on the site. “I had no intention of it getting this big.”

But now that it has, she too says she’s learning something from watching the generosity of fans, friends and total strangers whose hearts have been touched by Speidel’s story.

“I’ve learned how easy it is to make a difference,” she said. “One person can make a difference in someone’s life.”

A giving heart

White’s stay-at-home mom, Erica White, describes her eldest daughter as an individual who has a giving heart.

For her senior project, White chose “Acts of Kindness,” tracking how far one act of kindness could grow, how many people it could affect, her mother said.

“She will randomly leave money by a pop machine, just to bring a smile to someone’s face,” her mother said.

With the pennies, White left a note that said, “You are never given a wish without the power to make it come true.”

The idea to try to help the Speidel family came from the realization that she didn’t have enough money herself to help, Erica White said.

“The Golden Rule is very big in our house,” she said. “This girl lives by the Golden Rule.”

White serves meals at Love Chapel on Wednesday nights, working with church volunteers who prepare the food. She’s president of North’s Key Club, a student-led organization providing service opportunities and developing leaderships skills. The core values of Key Club are caring and inclusiveness.

She works at Starbucks off National Road 28 hours a week and is taking Advanced Placement classes at North this semester and IUPUC classes. The Starbucks work is to save money for college at Indiana University this fall.

The hours spent volunteering are about something else.

Dreams for the future

Volunteering at Love Chapel started out as helping out every other week, part of her Key Club service. But soon, White discovered that Love Chapel needed one person who knew where everything was, who could help the church volunteers who prepare the meals get organized in distribution.

She’s been busy helping them and reorganizing the area where meals are distributed to make it more efficient, she said.

And her career dreams have changed as she explores the power of wishes, giving and believing in people.

“I wanted to be a pediatric oncologist until a few months ago,” she said of one of her goals. “You know, shave my head with my patients, be that kind of doctor.”

But now, she sees herself as an individual who needs to start something that matters, much along the lines of Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, who gives away a pair of shoes for every pair he sells.

Mycoskie has given away 35 million pairs of shoes since 2006, and Toms Eyewear has restored sight to more than 250,000 individuals since 2011 — all through customers’ generosity.

“I want to create a for-profit business that’s successful and makes a huge difference in the world,” White said. That business will probably have something to do with biotechnology, but she isn’t that far into that dream yet.

If there’s one student who exemplifies that kind of dedication to service, it would be White, said her science teacher, North’s Nick Williams.

White’s work helping others during the past two years has given him something to point to about what high school students can do to make a difference, Williams said.

Her list of what she does to help in the community is probably the most of any student Williams has ever taught, he said.

“She’s just a very enthusiastic kid in general,” he said.

“A lot of my teachers say I’ve found my calling,” White said.

A role model

As White prepares to leave for IU this fall, her mother says her oldest daughter could not have been a better role model for her younger sisters — Kelsey, 14, and Kenzie, 10.

“She has inspired me,” Erica White said of her daughter. “She has always made me proud.”

White said she has no idea how far the #JoshStrong fund will go or what the Speidel family might be thinking about it. She hasn’t talked to the family about it, saying they have so much to deal with right now that it isn’t necessary.

When the family needs the money, they can get all of it at once or withdraw as needed, she said.

And she has no idea what she might say to Josh Speidel someday about how the fundraising started or about the hundreds of donors who were so taken with the basketball player’s story.

She might not say anything at all, she said.

“I know that Josh will make it through this,” she said. “I have faith he will make it through.”

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Donating to #joshstrong

If you are interested in donating online to the #joshstrong site established by Columbus North senior Keirsten White, go to gofundme.com and type in Josh Speidel in the search area. The site will appear at the top of the list.

Josh Speidel Gifts of Grace

All MainSource bank locations around Indiana are also accepting donations to help the Josh Speidel family with medical expenses. Mention that you are donating to the Josh Speidel Gifts of Grace fund so the bank officials can access the account. Questions may be directed to dianmann@gmail.com. The bank account was established by Bill and Diana Mann, Columbus, who are close family friends with the Speidels.

Gasoline cards

Community Church of Columbus, 3850 N. Marr Road, is collecting gasoline gift cards for the Speidel family to ease the cost of traveling to and from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The gift cards may be dropped off at the church between 8 a.m. and noon and 1 and 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 8 a.m. and noon Fridays. For more information, call 812-376-9478.

Frontier Telecommunications accepts donations

Frontier Telecommunications in Seymour, Third and Walnut streets, is accepting donations for the Speidel family as Josh Spedel’s father, David, is employed there as a local technical supervisor. Those who donate are registered to win a $50 Visa gift card from the company.

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“I’ve learned how easy it is to make a difference. One person can make a difference in someone’s life.”

Columbus North senior Keirsten White, on lessons learned as she raises money for accident victim Josh Speidel

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Zonta International Club of Columbus will have a used book sale from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 20 and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 21 at FairOaks Mall in the space across across from Kirlin’s Hallmark.

Proceeds will fund Zonta scholarships for young women at local colleges.

Items for sale will include hardback books, paperback books, fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks and children’s books at bargain prices.

Donations for the sale are being accepted at Lovelace Electric, 1414 Lafayette Ave.

The Indiana Department of Education is telling schools to continue plans to begin the ISTEP later this month, and that any effort to shorten the length of the test could require legislative approval.

The state department of education is challenging claims by Gov. Mike Pence that it wasn’t open about how the test has changed. Department of Education officials said the state board of education was told six months ago the number of questions that would appear on this year’s test — but not the length of time that it would take Hoosier children age 8 to 14 to complete the test.

The length of the test has grown to about 12 hours and in most cases doubled, which Pence said during a news conference on Monday shocked and outraged him and parents.

But Indiana Department of Education spokesman Daniel Altman and deputy superintendent of public instruction Danielle Shockey said Tuesday that neither the governor nor the state board of education should have been surprised, because they were told in August that the test would be longer.

“For the governor to complain that he only recently learned of this, to be honest, it’s either politically malicious or it’s a serious sign of staff incompetence,” Altman said.

The department of education will review a national consultant’s recommendations on how to shorten the test, but officials can’t know what will happen next until they see the recommendations, Altman and Shockey said. They said the department will cooperate with the analysis.

The recommendations are due by Feb. 20, leaving the department of education and CTB/McGraw-Hill days to make changes to the test. Creating a standardized test typically takes 12 to 18 months, Shockey said.

“Given that we’re three weeks out, it seems like it would require a lot of work,” Shockey said.

The governor has tasked Edward Roeber, an independent consultant with degrees in psychology and measurement and evaluation, with finding ways to shorten this year’s ISTEP test.

Pence announced Monday that he was hiring a consultant to find a way to shorten the test after listening to the complaints and concerns from parents across the state about the longer length of ISTEP. The test, which typically took between five and six hours in previous years, will take Indiana’s about 470,000 third- through eighth-graders approximately 12 to 13 hours to complete in its current form.

Roeber, who will be paid up to $22,000 for his work, is expected to complete his assessment of ISTEP and present his report to the department of education. Pence has said he expects the department and CTB/McGraw-Hill, the company that writes and administers ISTEP, to make the recommended changes.

In the meantime, the department of education is telling schools to move forward with practice lessons, practice tests and anything else they were already planning to prepare for ISTEP.

Students can begin taking the first section of ISTEP two weeks from today.

The state department also plans to move forward with a state board of education meeting later this week to discuss the length of the test, and whether legislative action is needed to change the exam, Altman said.

The events leading to the confusion and tension about this year’s ISTEP test started when state lawmakers decided last spring not to use Common Core academic standards, instead creating a new set of standards just for Indiana.

That meant the state also needed to create a new test that would measure how well students are being prepared for college and their careers, and in May the department of education learned that Indiana would not be given a transition year to create and start using the new test. The new test had to be in place this spring.

The department of education worked during the summer to create the new test and in August, at the request of the state board of education, presented the proposed number of test questions, Altman and Shockey said.

For example, the 2014 ISTEP exam had a total of 10 math and language arts questions on the first section of ISTEP, and a total of 91 math and language arts questions on the second, online portion. This year’s exam has 18 math and language arts questions on part one, and 129 math and language arts questions on the online section.

The new test had more difficult questions, in line with the state’s new academic standards, and also included pilot questions that could be used for the new standardized test students will take in 2016.

The department of education didn’t share a specific testing timeline with the state board of education or with schools until January. But anyone familiar with ISTEP could see how the number of questions had increased, and know the test would take more time, Altman and Shockey said.

Education officials are worried about whether any last-minute changes to the test will cause confusion when it’s time for schools to give the exams.

Schools have to follow precise instructions when conducting ISTEP, otherwise the test results could be invalidated. And right now the details of what sections will or won’t be tested are anything but clear.

“(Schools) were ready for this. So any confusion would not be something, that I suggest, we created,” Shockey said.

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On Tuesday, Gov. Mike Pence announced his selection for a consultant to review and recommend how to shorten ISTEP testing for students.

Who: Edward Roeber, of Michigan, an independent consultant to organizations including the Michigan Assessment Consortium and Assessment Solutions Group

Task: To review and make recommendations to the governor, the Indiana Department of Education, and the Indiana State Board of Education to shorten the 2015 ISTEP test. The work will be done in two phases. Before Feb. 20, Roeber will give an initial analysis and recommendations for spring 2015. From February to December, he will work on the spring 2016 assessment.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in psychology, master’s degree in educational psychology, and doctorate in measurement and evaluation from The University of Michigan.

Cost: The maximum cost for Roeber’s contract is $22,000.

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Margaret R. Brown Elementary School normally sports brown and orange. But Friday, the Seymour school took on a shade of blue.

The reason was to support first-year assistant principal Lisa Speidel, whose son, Josh, was seriously injured in a car accident Feb. 1 near Taylorsville.

Josh Speidel is a 6-foot-8 standout for the Columbus North High School varsity boys basketball team, and he has signed to play at NCAA Division I University of Vermont.

People have shown their support with signs reading “#JoshStrong.”

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On Friday, Brown Elementary did its part to support the Columbus student-athlete.

Students wore blue, colored signs and autographed banners and posterboards, and fourth-graders were recorded while singing a song. Staff wore white T-shirts with #JoshStrong and Columbus North’s logo on the front and Josh’s jersey number, 32, on the back.

At the end of the school day, students gathered in the library by grade for group pictures while holding their signs.

Everything the school did is going into a YouTube video and will be shared with the Speidel family.

“Whenever he knows that we’ve done all that kind of stuff for him, he’ll really like that, and he’ll know how much we care for him,” fourth-grader Brooke Trinkle said.

“It just shows that we’re thankful for Mrs. Speidel, to show that we care for her family,” fellow fourth-grader Aiden Darlage said.

The school realized how hard the incident has been for their assistant principal and her family. Staff members felt it was important to do something to show support.

Brown set the event for Thursday, but school was canceled because of the weather. Students, however, still showed up to school Friday wearing blue.

Music teacher Kathy Porter said recording the kids singing was spur of the moment. The message of the song “The Power of the Dream” is how your mind can take you a long way, but your heart is what really puts it all together for you, Porter said.

“Any time someone’s injured, it’s really important that they know, even if they can’t talk about it, they can feel it,” she said. “Whenever they play the music or show (Josh) this video or when (Lisa) and her husband see the video, I think that’s going to be pretty powerful.”

Porter said she was proud of her students for being a part of the video.

“I think that was a big revealing of their true feelings about how they do care about people,” she said. “When they know people need help, they step up.”

Seeing the school come together to support the Speidel family was amazing but not surprising, Porter said.

“The teachers and staff at Brown school are absolutely awesome when it comes to supporting one another,” she said. “Even though it’s Mrs. Speidel’s first year to be at Brown school, I think that she knows even with an incident like this, as tragic as it is, she knows the support that she has here at Brown school.”

Porter said she likes working alongside Lisa Speidel.

“She has brought an outside perspective, and I think she has a way of bringing people together,” Porter said. “Even though it has just been basically one semester, I think she has worked hard to try to build some bridges, and that’s really important when you have a staff that is as big as ours and a student body that’s as diverse as ours.”

The students like Lisa Speidel, too.

“She’s a really nice person, and if someone gets in trouble or anything, she can take care of it,” Aiden said.

“She’s really fun,” Brooke said. “She’s not shy at all. She’s really talkative.”

Some of the students remember one day this school year when Josh Speidel had a day off from school and his mom took him around Brown Elementary.

“He told us a little bit about himself, and he likes basketball,” Brooke said.

Brooke is a basketball player, too, and she said Josh shared an important message with her and her classmates.

“He says to never give up, and there’s no time to quit,” she said. “You can always be a basketball player no matter how old you are.”

On Friday, it was important to the students to share a message with Josh and his family.

Aiden said they are in his prayers.

“Just hope,” he said. “There’s always hope.”

Zach Spicer is a staff writer for The Tribune of Jackson County, a sister newspaper of The Republic.