Shinsky became an orphan at 8 years old, and 50 years later, he opened the doors to his own orphanage. Shinsky’s project, The City of the Children of Matamoros Mexico, opened a little more than a month ago and provides 13 children safety, food, shelter, education, spirituality and vocational skills. The orphanage includes six buildings, almost 20,000 square feet of land, a medical building and the capacity for 40 children.

Shinsky’s story is one of perseverance. After his father died of a heart attack, Shinsky was sent to Parmadale Orphanage in Parma, Ohio, where he resided for about three years and eventually became a foster child in Cleveland. Shinsky worked hard on the football field at Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School, eventually earning him a football scholarship to MSU. But several knee surgeries and a back surgery left his plan of playing professional football unrealized. So Shinsky, with his bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education, took a job teaching special education in Lansing Public Schools.

On Nov. 5, 2007, — his birthday — Shinsky faced another challenge, this time in the form of a cancerous tumor on his neck. He began treatment that day and received more than 30 cancer-related treatments. Shinsky once again persevered, and is thankful that he’s experienced all that he has.

“I believe that everything that has happened to me has pointed in this direction to me accomplishing this goal,” Shinsky said.

While Shinsky was being treated for cancer, his wife, Cindy, who graduated from MSU in 1982 with a degree in elementary and special education, took over operations for the orphanage and helped establish The John and Cindy Shinsky Charitable Endowment, which helps fund the orphanage. Cindy Shinsky, who works as the associate superintendent for the Clinton County Regional Educational Service Agency, married John in 2000, and on their honeymoon, they decided to travel to Mexico and help out at an orphanage together.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to share a very special moment together helping to live out John’s dream,” she said. “It’s a life-changing opportunity. It’s exceedingly enriching. It’s really sometimes hard to understand what service to others is really about, but when you undertake something that you don’t have to do and you do it with heart and soul and you can see how it changes the hearts and lives of others, I don’t think there’s anything more gratifying than making that kind of difference.”

John Shinsky was honored at the MSU football game last weekend for his 2,000 mile, 18-day bike ride, which started from East Lansing and continued to Matamoros, Mexico.

Shinsky was joined on the bike ride, which happened in April and has raised approximately $150,000 to date, by his former teammates Joe DeLamielleure and Eljay Bowron. The charity bike ride just popped into Shinsky’s head, but the feat isn’t where Shinsky finds the message.

“It’s not necessarily what we did, it’s why we did it,” Shinsky said. “Why would somebody get together with a group of guys and have us ride all that way for a cause? There are children in many parts of the world, including many in the United States, that don’t have a voice. They don’t have food, they don’t have education and they don’t have hope.”

Shinsky has partnered with Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) International, one of the largest orphanage operations in the world. Currently, Shinsky has former orphans running the orphanage, as he feels experience is key to education.

“I understand what it’s like to be an orphan, I understand what it’s like to transition into another environment,” he said. “I know all of the things that go with being given up, the concern that you’ll have resentment, sad feelings of leaving your family and all of those things. All of those things orientated me.”

Shinsky is working with Juan Marinez, assistant director for Outreach with Cooperative Extension Services for MSU, in an attempt to get students involved in the orphanage project. Marinez hopes to integrate a trip to Shinsky’s orphanage into a project for horticulture and agronomy students as part of their service learning curriculum.

The project would go into effect next year if budget issues clear themselves up, and Marinez, who hopes to work with student clubs for the project, is excited at the possibility of establishing a long-term opportunity for students.

“They could participate in setting up in a food production system at the orphanage,” Marinez said. “The kids would be able to learn to plant and how to nourish the plants, and then later on extract food from these plants.”

Shinsky has taken a number of MSU students to Mexico for spring break trips. His commitment to education starts with himself: Shinsky is taking Spanish classes at MSU to help his communication in Mexico.

Shinsky cites his relationship with MSU as one of the more integral parts of his story, including figures such as Duffy Daugherty and Tom Izzo, who have adopted children of their own.

“MSU became a family for me, we all rallied together to do what we can to help people,” he said. “Michigan State took the time to take a moment out of everything and say ‘doing something for these kids in Mexico is important.’ … Our MSU family is unbelievable. We stand for something.”