In A Smile as Big as the Moon, John Corbett plays Mike Kersjes, a football coach and special-ed instructor at Forest Hills High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The kids in his special-ed class are impaired, in some ways, yet, as Mike knows, they are smart. And they each have special talents.
Being a football coach, Mike knows how to form a team and he does this with this class. From him they learn teamwork, but also gain much needed self esteem. Mike teaches not only his class but the entire country that special-ed students are capable of doing much more than what is thought. He knows, deep down, they can do things even the principal does not think they can or should do.
Space Camp
When his class gets interested in the space program, Mike decides to take them on a trip to Space Camp. But he comes up against several obstacles. First, Space Camp is for overachievers and intellectual kids. They have never undertaken a special-ed class. It is up to Mike to convince them that his kids are up for the challenge.
His second obstacle is raising the $50,000 needed to take them all to Space Camp, which is in Alabama. Through the months, as he prepares his class for all the challenges that they will face in Space Camp, he tries to raise the funds for them to go. But car washes and bake sales won’t bring in $50,000.
Obstacles and Achievements
When they finally get their funding and the class is prepared - well, somewhat prepared - for Space Camp, they head down to Huntsville, Alabama where they are going to face the biggest challenges of their lives. The kids have already been teased by their fellow high school students about their disabilities, but they also face some discrimination from other groups at Space Camp.
It is up to Mike, his co-teacher Robynn McKinney (Jessy Schram), and the students to pull together and prove that they can do the things the other kids can do. They have worked hard for their chance and they are not going to stop. They know they can do it. And Mike has the confidence in them that plants the seeds of achievement.
John Corbett
In the press notes, John Corbett describes his character this way. “He was also a special-ed teacher, and one day he and the other teacher he worked with – Robynn McKinney, played by Jessy Schram -- took the kids to a planetarium, where one of them grabbed a stack of Space Camp brochures. When they got back to school, Mike started reading about Space Camp, and he started thinking about how cool it would be if his ‘special’ kids could go to Huntsville, Alabama, and participate.”
Corbett undertook his role with great enthusiasm. He embodied his character and described the difficulties the real teacher had to face. “As a matter of fact, the school administration thought the whole thing was ‘mission impossible.’ So Mike had to scramble to try to raise the money.
“Another big hurdle he faced was the good folks who ran Space Camp. They’d put together this fantastic program – but it was for elite kids from elite schools throughout the country. Basically, it was a program for kids who were science whizzes! At first, the Space Camp administrators just couldn’t get their heads around having a bunch of special-ed kids attending their elite – and very competitive – program.”
As for the special-ed class, “they ran the ‘special needs’ gamut. Everything from Tourette syndrome to autism to Down syndrome to dyslexia – and more! It was like alphabet soup of special needs: ADD, ADHD, OCD… You name it, they had it, in that class.” Corbett explained.
A Smile as Big as the Moon
This story is not only great fun to watch, as the students face and overcome difficult challenges with the strength no on ever imagined, but it is also inspiring. Besides leaving viewers feeling good, there are plenty of “feel good” moments throughout the film. Every time the students confront and achieve a new challenge, it is heartening.
The cast is unbelievable. Led by John Corbett, they excel in their scenes. This is a “must see” for TV viewers.
A Smile as Big as the Moon premiers Sunday, January 29, 2012 on ABC ad 9/8C on the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
