Published: August 10, 2008 11:31 pm            

LEWISTON: Sebby Passanese doesn’t let rare condition slow him down

Sebby Passanese is an entrepreneur, an energy guy, a real go-getter.

He can’t help it if he’s 13 years old.

Passanese, who will enter eighth grade at Lewiston-Porter Middle School this fall, has been running a lemonade stand for about three years, two of those at his current house on Mohawk Street in the Village of Lewiston.

On summer days when he’s not at recreation programs, he’ll be there most of the day. He knows he’s done when the street light comes on, he says.

He has a large white board announcing his prices to passersby, a small plastic cash register, which includes a safe where he keeps his profits, and a bicycle which takes him to and from the Dollar General on Center Street to buy supplies.

“Sometimes he’ll be out here for hours and hours,” said Cindy Passanese, Sebby’s mother and an employee at the Lewiston Animal Hospital.

He also has a regular list of customers, including the National Grid crew which doesn’t miss the 25-cent cup of lemonade whenever they’re in town, a landscaper who’s made himself a regular and a local who stops by sometimes and gives Sebby money, even if he doesn’t take anything to drink.

“Sometimes he has traffic backed up down the street,” Cindy said.

He has a helper, 5-year-old Brandon Kankolenski, who helps out every other weekend and is paid by Sebby. Brandon is the son of Cindy’s boyfriend, John.

Sebby loves sports, comforting himself with a basketball hoop and hockey net in his driveway when customers are sparse. He plays organized baseball in the summer and is an avid Jets fan.

On Thursday evening he was wearing a Chad Pennington jersey, but he’s already moved on.

“We’ve got Brett Favre now,” he said excitedly.

What Sebby doesn’t do is let the condition with which he was born, central hyperventilation syndrome, slow him down. CHVS is a rare condition which prevents Sebby from breathing when he’s sleeping. A small white tracheotomy tube which protrudes from his neck attaches to a ventilator at night and whenever he takes naps.

Four days a week, a nurse spends the night at the Passanese household.

“He never lets it bother him,” said Cindy. “Even when other kids make fun of him, he just brushes it off.”

Sebby makes roughly $30 in profit a week, about six times his allowance. His older sisters, Emily, 18, and Allison, 15, borrow money and an occasional cup of lemonade from their brother. Cindy calls him a “math whiz” and a budding businessman.

“He’s very good at numbers,” Cindy said. “That’s why I think he’s so good at this.”

        

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