October 17, 1987 - May 29, 2006

Kolleen lived an active life, illuminating the lives of those she touched and enhancing the communities in which she lived. As a freshman at Albion College, Kolleen was a member of the girls JV basketball team and worked as a volunteer with Albion College Habitat for Humanity, helping to provide affordable housing for less fortunate families in and around Albion, Michigan. Her goal was to eventually become an athletic trainer. Kolleen and her dorm mates spent the entire fall semester learning to knit, and then she took the time to make Christmas gifts for all of her family.

Throughout her brief life, Kolleen strived toward excellence in education, athletics, and community service. At Ottawa Elementary School in Clinton Township, she served on the student council. At Algonquin Middle School, Kolleen excelled in basketball, volleyball, and track, and was voted Eighth Grade Class President.

During her high school years at Chippewa Valley, Kolleen (nicknamed KoRo by teammates) served in the student government during her freshman year and competed in a variety of sports, including basketball (all 4 years), volleyball, soccer, track, and softball, playing a total of 6 years of AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball and 2 years of AAU volleyball. In the midst of a packed schedule she made time to coach an elementary school basketball team. Kolleen was named to the All Academic Team, the 2004 All Macomb County Class A Second Team, the 2004 Detroit Free Press All East Second Team, the 2004 All-East Girls Basketball Team, and the Macomb Coaches Association 2004 ALL-COUNTY Basketball Team, and received an All Metro Honorable Mention in 2004. In 2005, Kolleen’s classmates elected her Most Athletic Girl.

Though Kolleen was a dedicated student, athlete, and community leader, she also had a passion for the finer things of life—her friends, her family, her dog Grant, listening to country music, collecting all kinds of athletic shoes, cooking and inventing her own recipes, exchanging instant messages with her younger brother and sister, cheering on the Detroit Pistons, boating and tubing at her family’s lake house, Quizno’s, and Chicken Marsala and pizza at J. Baldwin’s.

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