Wave of support builds for Emmy-winning video editor from Patchogue battling cancer

For decades, Sean Merriam has worked behind the scenes, shaping stories for television, brands and live audiences.

Now, the Patchogue native and Emmy Award–winning video editor finds himself at the center of one he didn’t script: another battle with cancer and a family adjusting to a new reality of treatment and caregiving.

A 1986 graduate of Patchogue-Medford High School, Merriam, 58, attended Stony Brook University and the School of Visual Arts in New York City before building a long career in video editing and motion graphics across New York’s media world. Merriam’s local roots run deep: His father, the late-Phil Merriam, was a longtime social studies teacher and football coach at Patchogue and then Patchogue-Medford high schools.

In recent years, he has worked with Eventage, an event production and marketing agency based in South Orange, New Jersey, where he continues to do video and graphic design work for live events and clients. The company is owned by Matt Glass, a longtime friend and fellow Patchogue-Medford graduate.

Today, Merriam lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with his wife Melissa and four children — son, 24, and daughters, 22, 16 and 13. Melissa Irslinger Merriam, a longtime teacher at PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights, has stepped away from the classroom for the remainder of the school year to focus on her husband and family.

“This is meant to connect my own Facebook crew with the wonderful community that has come together to support (my wife) when she made the extremely difficult decision to take time off from her passion to take care of me,” Merriam wrote on Facebook. “I am in awe of the amount of love and support the Brooklyn Heights community has given her, and as a result, our family!”

“She’s one of those teachers who leaves a lasting impact—steady, caring, and fully invested in her students,” the page notes. “The kind of person our kids are lucky to have early in their lives.”

The organizer added that the educator’s decision to step away from teaching for the remainder of the school year was not made lightly, but was necessary so she could “be fully present with her family.”

“Between medical care, time away from work, and the day-to-day reality of supporting a family through something like this, the pressure adds up quickly,” Kramp said. “This is our chance, as a community, to show up for someone who has shown up for so many of our kids.”

The effort has drawn nearly $60,000 through more than 260 donations, largely from the PS 8 school community but also from Merriam’s high school friends and others in the Patchogue-Medford community.

Merriam, who met his wife 20 years ago at PS 8, praised her dedication to her students, writing that she “deserves any recognition she can get.”

“She has not only gotten generations of kids to LOVE going to school, but they have actually learned during that time!”

_{Top: Sean Merriam, his wife Melissa, and their four children (courtesy of GoFundMe).}