BERNE — As a student fought cancer to the death, his teacher stayed by his side right up to the end, and now uses his life as a foundation.

Laura Mileto, a special-education resource teacher at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, was presented with Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year Award on May 15.

Mileto tutored Anthony Hill at his home and at the hospital, until he died at the age of 17 after a three-and-a-half year battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
"She did an awful lot for Anthony," said Hill’s mother, Jackie. Hill said she hadn’t realized that Mileto didn’t get paid for all the visits to the Hill’s home and the hospital. "She did it out of the kindness of her heart," she said. Hill called Mileto an "awesome lady" and "a blessing."
"She’s always been there to support us," said Hill, adding that Mileto organized two spaghetti dinners, which raised money for the Anthony Hill Scholarship Fund. Mileto also sold snacks out of her classroom to raise money, and attended bone-marrow drives, Jackie Hill said.

Receiving the Teacher of the Year Award was bittersweet, Mileto said last week.
"There were so many people that were deserving of it, and he’s not here," she said. After receiving the honor, a teacher told her: "It’s not about the death of Anthony. It’s about what you did after he passed."
"Sometimes you need that reminder," Mileto said. "I know he would love that his fellow students are being helped out in his name."
"She truly is an amazing woman, teacher, and friend," said BKW teachers Shannon James and Sheila Martin in a letter to the Enterprise editor.

Mileto said she doesn’t know who nominated her for the award. Along with the honor, BKW was given a $1,000 educational grant. Mileto will complete essays and obtain letters of recommendation to compete at the state level, and BKW could be awarded another $10,000 grant if she wins.

Remembering Anthony
Small in stature, Mileto spoke last week about the large role Anthony Hill continues to play in her life. She has a framed copy of the letter sent to Wal-Mart representatives from the person who nominated her. She wears a bracelet, created in Hill’s honor, that says "Live fearlessly." When speaking about Hill, she smiles and laughs often when recalling moments they shared, ever amazed by his unwavering attitude and positive outlook.
"Awesome kid. My favorite. He’ll always be my favorite," said Mileto. "He’s definitely missed every single day. He came up with the idea to live fearlessly. He didn’t survive to see the bracelets come in, but he came up with the saying. And I think we’re all just trying to do that in his memory because that’s how he lived his life," she said.

Throughout the nearly four years she tutored him, Hill never complained, Mileto said. His lessons varied, day by day, and he worked up until a week before he died.
"Everything was modified to begin with. But he never complained," she said. The last day they worked together, Mileto asked Anthony if he wanted to work or if he "just wanted to talk and chill out." Mileto smiled when thinking of Hill’s reply: "Do you have something small""
"Because by then it was: If we do it, we do it. If we don’t, it’s OK. Because we knew. We knew the outcome by then," Mileto said. "He never stopped. He never gave up."
When asked if there were letdowns, she said, "I didn’t show it with him, and he didn’t show it with me." She would often drive home in tears, she said. "When I found out he had three months to live, I was in shock because he looked good, and he looked strong," she recalled. "I almost wanted him to start a journal, but that would be accepting that he was going to die, so I did not suggest that."
When Hill was receiving hospice care, Mileto was told she needed to say goodbye. "He wasn’t really there. I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and I left, and that was it. That was the last time I saw him. You want to say so much more, but you can’t," she said. "You don’t want to take away any hope."

The day Hill died, teachers took Mileto aside and advised her to stay home the following day. But Mileto refused.
"If I didn’t come in, I wouldn’t come back," Mileto said. She thought to herself, "‘I can’t give up, and I know these kids are going to be"in shock.’"
"They helped me, and I helped them get through it, and that was hard. It’s a huge loss. Huge loss. But you try to remember what he stood for. He helped so many people in everything he did."

When Hill was asked how he wanted the bracelet proceeds to be to be spent, he said he wanted them to go to Albany Medical Center Hospital, Mileto said. The money was used to buy a blanket-warmer for the cancer center, which hadn’t had one. BKW students took a field trip to the hospital to see where the blanket-warmer was and would be used, Mileto said.

"The A factor"
"Anthony never fit into one particular category"He kind of made his own category, and he made friends with everybody. Everybody loved him," Mileto said. "That’s how I got to know the other kids in the school — through him.
"There are some great kids here. I think he opened my eyes to a lot of different people, whereas before I kind of just stuck with the special-ed. kids, and I didn’t know a lot of the other kids," she said.
Mileto said she started to interact more with other students, went to sporting events, and got more involved in students’ lives and activities because of Anthony Hill. "That’s living," she said. "He taught me a lot about living.
"I do believe in angels"I believe he’s in a better place, and I believe he is watching over us — everyone here, his family, and definitely his friends," she said.
"I have pictures of him in my classroom, just as a reminder, and I need that. It’s one of those things you have to be reminded of to live fearlessly," Mileto said. "I really try to get that across to my kids who don’t appreciate life all the time. We try to talk to them about not settling with a relationship — if they’re failing, to keep trying," she said.
Mileto has been teaching with her assistant, Marylyn West, for about five years, and she said she knows she would not have made it through without her. "She bonds with the kids as much as I do," Mileto said. "We’re very positive together. She’s a lot of fun."
Mileto started a scholarship fund with the awards given to students who plan to attend community colleges and vocational schools. Recipients of the awards, she said, have to have "the A factor."
"They have to have the Anthony factor," Mileto said, explaining that those who are awarded the scholarships have Hill’s qualites; they must be considerate, sincere, and always thinking of others.
Each year, Mileto organizes a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the scholarships, held on Senior Night. Last year, four students were given scholarships of $500. The extra money raised goes to hospice, she said. She made shirts with a picture of Hill and the saying, "Living fearlessly in your name." At the spaghetti dinners, members of Hill’s church, the First Baptist Church in Westerlo, as well as friends and family of students come out in support, she said.
"The community here is so much different than a larger city because everyone came together, and everybody knows everybody," she said.