Published: February 24, 2008 09:21 pm            

The Off Season: Believe it — there’s still good to be found

TERRE HAUTE — A few weeks ago I sat in a metal folding chair at a table across from Pat Manley, who lives about a mile from my place as the crow flies. Over the noise of a warm and crowded Rosedale Firehouse, I scooped a generous bowl of chili and crackers into my mouth, yet managed to hear her say something pretty profound.

“It’s a great thing that so much good can come out of such a small place in this evil old world, isn’t it,” she quietly said. I swallowed hard and said with a conviction I’d just realized I had, “Yes, it is.”

Pat, and I, and too many others to count, were witnessing a miracle of sorts that night. We were at a dinner that had been organized by the good folks of five local churches in my community — including Pat, herself — who wanted to do something for a boy and his family who sorely need the help.

In the late afternoon of October 26 last year, Ronnie Guckenberger, a freshman student at Riverton Parke High School, was a passenger, along with his young sister, Mallory, and a school buddy, in a car driven by his mother, Dawn. The hard rain that fell that day was a factor in an accident that banged everyone up, but Ronnie suffered by far the worst injury, and he’s been in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis ever since.

While Ronnie continues to make remarkable progress, the financial and emotional strain on his family has been considerable, so members of Christian Fellowship, Dailey Chapel Christian, New Hope, Friendly Grove and Rosedale United Methodist churches decided to do something about it. The soup and sandwiches dinner and silent auction they organized that night raised more than $9,000 for the Guckenbergers.

“For a small community like Rosedale to have five separate churches come together to support Ronnie, well, there’s no words in my vocabulary to express the thanks of our family,” says Ronnie’s grandmother, Connie Brown. “It’s just beyond anything we imagined,” she said.

Connie went on to say about her grandson: “The expanse of prayers and good wishes from nearly coast to coast has been amazing. Ninety-nine percent of the comments we hear start with ‘He’s in our prayers,’ and that’s what has brought him here. We do believe that in time Ronnie’s going to be fine.”

Typical of the volunteers that night is a friend of mine, Julia Hickman. Julia has done just about everything she can to help keep her shrinking hometown on its feet. “It seems like when somebody is in need, this area is really good for helping out,” Julia said. “Farmers have done that when someone needed help getting his crops in. We’re really good about pulling together, I think,” she added.

Deflecting any credit from herself, Julia wanted me to know that a number of people were involved in planning the evening. Besides Pat Manley — and with the knowledge that she had probably left someone off the list and wanted me to apologize for her in advance — Julia mentioned Mary Lou McCall, Shirley Brown, John and Penny O’Neal, Judy Adams, Sharon Donovan and Penny Schad as the organizers.

On top of that came servers and cooks and dishwashers and custodians, and a few dozen more solid citizens who made desserts and brought those in to serve the night of the dinner. I had no reporter’s notebook with me to write down names that night, but I know I saw Penny Mattingly and Carol Brown, Suzanne Rukes and Verona Nelson, Becky Riley and Dottie Trout, Jan Lane and Julie Hire, Jenny Scamihorn and Judy Norris, Dee Deacon and Donna Sampson, Carol Lohse and Lisa Kneeland, Ted Adams and Jerry Manley, David Adams and Kevin Bratcher and Ronna Rewers as they wiped tables and served drinks, dumped trash and sliced pies.

As if cooking and serving and cleaning weren’t enough, the silent auction included items that people just wanted to give. My friend, Joe Huxford, made a beautiful coffee table, an old printer’s devil neatly placed under a plate of glass. He wanted me to know that Tina Blackburn of Professional Glass in Clinton donated the table top when she discovered that he was making it to give away.

Besides the table, came a wooden bowl made by Wilbur Hickman — a true artist — and an autographed football, and Pacers tickets, and gift certificates, and too many other things to mention here. The Banks of the Wabash Choir volunteered its time and songs, too.

When I think of it, I know that I live near a town that to some is just a wide spot in the road, a place with one stoplight, a little grade school, a solitary gas station, and a one-waitress restaurant that serves breakfasts to local farmers and bus drivers. My son mows the bank grass, my daughter worked at the local grocery when she was in school, and my wife and I can remember a dozen businesses that simply aren’t there anymore.

But it’s nice to know that I have neighbors who care for one another, people, who as David Wilkerson once said, know that love isn’t just something you feel, but something you do.

To think I learned that once again over a bowl of soup and crackers.

Mike Lunsford can be reached at hickory913@aol.com, or by regular mail c/o the Tribune-Star, P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN 47808.

Donations can be made to the Guckenberger Family, c/o First Financial Bank, Rosedale Branch, P.O. Box 237, Rosedale, IN 47874.

        

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