If you were with us at this year's Family & Community Conference, you already know Mike Medved. He's the one who picked up a guitar and filled the room — a Pittsburgh middle school history teacher, former pro basketball player, musician, and dad of three who carries a particular kind of energy (and height) that's hard to forget.
What a lot of our community already knows is the part of Mike's story that brought him to us in the first place: his son Simon, born with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, and who lives with cerebral palsy. So many of our families know this road — the joys, the hard mornings, the steady work of making sure your child is part of every room and every adventure, not watching from the sidelines.
This Father's Day weekend, we're so proud to share that Mike's story is now a documentary.
The lifestyle media brand Dad Day followed Mike for several months for the newest installment of its Go West series, and the result is the kind of fatherhood film you don't see often: honest, joyful, and grounded in the real texture of his days — teaching history in the morning, playing music at night, and navigating the realities of raising a child with significant needs with his wife Hillary.
At the center of it is the Pittsburgh Marathon, where Mike pushed Simon in a racing wheelchair across all 26.2 miles. As Dad Day tells it, he wasn't after a finish-line photo. He was doing what he does every single day — carrying his son into every experience life has to offer.
"We think Mike's story is going to hit dads in the chest," said Adam Kunes, founder of Dad Day and a fellow Pittsburgh native. "Whether you have a child with special needs or you just need a reminder to be grateful for what you have, Mike delivers that without ever trying to. He just lives it."
We'd add one thing to that. The HIE dads in our community don't ask "why me?" — they ask "what's next?" Mike embodies that, and we're honored to have him as part of the Hope for HIE family.
Watch Mike's episode of the Go West series, released today on the Dad Day YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/@itsdadday
Follow Dad Day: instagram.com/itsdadday | dadday.co
To every dad in our community walking this HIE journey — this weekend and every day — we see you. We have a supportive HIE Dads community for you to connect into, and other support programs and services.
Wishing you a Happy Father's Day.
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