Monday, December 20, 1999
Donors come through for Tristate's needy
BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Eldon Brown is smiling more since dental work was started on his front teeth.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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Eldon Brown is eating better foods and smiling better smiles.
Terri Kidd is anticipating a normal night's sleep.
Steve Lamb will be able to maneuver his wheelchair through his front door.
These and dozens of other needy Tristate residents are getting signs of encouragement from readers responding to the Enquirer's 14th annual Wish List project. Coordinated by United Way, the project collects cash and in-kind contributions.
A special section of Wish List stories about people in need was published Dec. 5 and daily stories followed for 12 days.
By Friday, readers had contributed $76,443.69. That compares with $64,814.15 collected at this point in the drive last year.
To date, the project has collected about $1.7 million in cash.
Mr. Brown, a retarded 40-year-old, returns to the dentist's chair this week to get permanent crowns on his teeth, courtesy of dentist Greg McGlone of Union, Ky., and Lochhead Dental Lab, Newport.
Dr. McGlone and his partner and wife, dentist Sandra Derringer, found Mr. Brown in their Sunday newspaper and learned about his need for dental work.
“It's a lot of work,” said Peggy Miller, office manager. “We devoted an entire afternoon to him.”
Gladly. “When you meet Eldon, you'll never forget him,” she said. “He's something else.”
She remembers his first words when he met Dr. McGlone: “Doctor, doctor! You saw my picture in the paper and you wanted to help me.”
The dentist did.
“It was very, very touching,” Ms. Miller said. “When he left, he was hugging everybody.”
Although Mr. Brown had had little experience in a dentist's office, “He was a good patient,” Ms. Miller said. “He wanted to listen to (an) oldies radio station, so we turned it up real loud.”
The gift should make Mr. Brown a healthier man.
“It'll make a drastic difference in his diet,” Ms. Miller said. “And aesthetically, too,” because the crowns are all on upper front teeth.
“I feel fine,” said Mr. Brown, who lives at Valley Haven, a personal-care facility at Sparta, Ky. “I want to have my teeth for Christmas Eve.
And he will.
Ms. Kidd, the mother of a 4-year-old brain-damaged daughter, lives in Loveland with all three of her children, will have to wait a little longer for a protective bed being given by Vail Products, Toledo, and New Care Therapies, a Shelbyville, Ky., distributor.
The bed, completely enclosed with mesh and vinyl-covered padding, will replace an air mattress on the floor, where Ms. Kidd sleeps with Caitlin, 4, to protect her from the seizures and other sleep disturbances she experiences as a result of viral meningitis and subsequent brain damage.
“I can't wait,” she said, with thrill in her voice.
The bed “is a piece of medical equipment, and, at the same time, a piece of furniture,” said Keith Holmes, general manager at New Care. “It looks like one of those things with the balls kids play in at Chuck E Cheese.”
And, to finish it off, “We agreed to put Winnie the Pooh on the borders for her.”
Mr. Holmes said the bed would be delivered and assembled within three weeks.
“This is actually a wonderful opportunity to help and a wonderful opportunity to make some product awareness,” Mr. Holmes said. “The biggest battle for us has been to make everyone aware of these products suited for the home.”
And, “When we have an opportunity to help someone, that's what we're going to do,” he said. “It's just something our owner (Jim Collins) has always believed in doing.”
New Care was contacted by an unidentified nurse at Children's Hospital.
In addition to Mr. Brown's dental work and Ms. Kidd's bed, neighbors and businesspeople are answering the call for special needs.
A coalition of Pleasant Ridge neighbors has agreed to build a ramp from Steve Lamb's front door so he and his wheelchair — now a part of him, because of to multiple sclerosis — can get out of the house to work and enjoy life.
A classroom of children at St. Michael School, Bellevue, has adopted 43-year-old Ernest Cherry and his two ailing daughters, 1 and 2, and started collecting money from odd jobs to get them decent kitchen appliances.
Lacie Gross, an 88-year-old widow with little mobility, has received a lift chair that lowers her into a comfortable sitting position and makes it easier to get back on her feet.
“I sit in it most of the time because I can get out of it better than the other chairs,” the Gallatin County resident says.
Judy Johnson of Deer Park donated the nearly new chair, which her grandmother could no longer use after moving into a smaller living space. Several other lift chairs also were donated to Senior Services of Northern Kentucky, which will put them to good use.
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