Friday, February 05, 1999
Wish List project again makes dreams come true
BY CINDY KRANZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With a house full of new plush carpet, 78-year-old Dorothy Pierce feels like a child again. “It's so soft,” the Goshen Township woman said as installers laid the taupe carpet. “I think I'll go barefoot.”
The carpeting was donated by Home Depot's Deerfield Township store, and Bruce Napier, owner of B&B Enterprises in Linwood, sent a crew to install it free.
It replaced 40-year-old shag carpeting that had become a hazard. Mrs. Pierce tripped on worn seams and fell once putting up drapes. It was one more thing to worry about, on top of diabetes, asthma and strokes.
Mrs. Pierce was one of dozens of people featured in the 1998 Wish List, an annual project to help Tristaters in need. It is sponsored by The Cincinnati Enquirer and administered by United Way. Contributions closed this week. The final tally — $142,661.02 from 1,819 donors — was on a par with 1997's tally.
The wishes fulfilled ranged from a storm door for 88-year-old Carrie Clark of Walnut Hills to a wheelchair ramp for William Gunn, a 65-year-old Bond Hill man with multiple sclerosis.
There's a new computer for Alex Williams, 3, of Batavia, who has been quadriplegic since he was 11 months old. Until his family can take the computer home, Alex is working on it at the Aaron W. Perlman Center for Children at Children's Hospital Medical Center. A switch lets him operate the computer with his head.
“The computer is really a big motivator,” said speech pathologist Jill Jump. “There are all kinds of smiles. He just loves it.”
Dannie Sanders now has an electric wheelchair. The 44-year-old Mount Healthy mother of two has sarcoidosis, a disease of the central nervous system that causes a buildup of inflammatory cells in body tissue. It attacked her spinal column, leaving her a paraplegic with no use of her legs and impaired sitting balance.
Her story led to her health insurance provider, ChoiceCare-Humana, picking up the $6,025 tab for the chair. That came about via the help of Sue Walpole, community outreach coordinator at Fluor Daniel Fernald, where Dannie's husband, Dana, works. “It was really a heartbreaking story,” Ms. Walpole said.
Amanda Isbel, 18, of Price Hill is deaf but now can answer the door and telephone, because when they ring, devices light up. She also can chat with friends by using a new keyboard to type phone conversations and receive written responses.
Money beyond that used to fulfill published wishes will be equally divided by the 20 social service agencies that participated in the project. It will be used throughout the year for people with similar needs.
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