#TeamEllen

Just last week on Thursday, June 4, 2015, our small community came together to support one of our own.  Ellen Campbell, daughter of Brad Campbell and granddaughter to lifelong resident, Leo Olsen, was in a car accident on April 22nd. She suffered critical injuries to her brain and the entire left side of her body, starting with the pelvis all the way down to her ankle.  She was taken to UNMC and was put into a medically induced coma to monitor and reduce her brain swelling. It was a long ten days waiting for her pressures to decrease. Her sister, Jane, was also in the accident and suffered a serious injury but was thankfully released within two days.

During the time at UNMC, she had surgery to insert hardware in her femur and ankle to literally hold everything together. On Day 10, they started decreasing the meds to bring her out of her coma. At first, she seemed confused and not focused. Over time, she started tracking movement in the room. After more time, she seemed to wave or smile in response to stimuli. She passed a swallow test, which was a big milestone. She was transferred to Madonna Rehab in Lincoln and started speaking one word at a time, but only in a whisper.  When I visited her last weekend at Madonna, she was still talking in a whisper but was communicating in sentences! She receives daily occupational and physical therapy and her expected release date is June 24, 2015.

During the first 10 days, it became obvious that her single, self-employed Dad would be missing a lot of work and would most likely be making a lot of trips to Lincoln after Ellen was moved to Madonna. Taylor Clark started a GoFundMe account and the amount swelled to over $15,000 in a matter of days.  It was at that same time that the idea for a spaghetti fundraiser was brought up by Elementary Counselor, Jann Strutzenberg. During the process, I became involved in trying to get it scheduled and the idea of a silent auction paired with the spaghetti dinner was introduced. Jann offered to take care of the food if I would do the silent auction.

So, here I am now reflecting back on the time since Ellen was in the accident and I am humbled by the community’s response to help. After Jann and I decided on a date and location, I created the Facebook invite.  Within MINUTES, I had 3 emails offering services and products for the benefit! Within 5 hours, I had at least 30 responses offering products for the silent auction and just as many responses for help with the dinner.  It was overwhelming, but welcome!

I have received a lot of “thank you’s” during this process and I almost always respond with “I can’t imagine not helping”.  First, I have been friends of the family practically all my life, Tandy has been friends with Brad for a very long time, and quite simply, I felt led to help out in any way that I could.

I am driven by Colossians 3:23 which says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man”.  Yes, I work for man, but ultimately I work for God.  I also hold fast to Galatians 6:9 which says “And let us not grow weary of doing good…”.  It can get tiring when you are serving others, but God gives me strength. God has blessed me greatly, and I felt the need to share.  One final thought about the “why” comes from 1 Corinthians 10:31, which says “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”.  God is the horsepower behind my desire.

As Chris Clausen so eloquently put it, “The total impact is so much bigger than the individual parts .. People poured out and God multiplied it.. He's still multiplying the good of it, in so many ways on top of the money.. It's just such an awesome thing!”

I wrote a blog in late April entitled “Life in Treynor” and I think the benefit last Thursday really drives home my convictions that Treynor is a great place to live!

I have many many people and organizations to thank and I really hope I don’t miss anyone!

• Hyee Madison Avenue CB - spaghetti, meat sauce, bread sticks, lettuce
• Ron & Deb Zimmerman, Hockenberg Newburgh - 500+ cookies & bars
• Modern Woodmen, Cindy Bryan (matching funds up to $2000)
• Thrivent (matching funds up to $1000)
• Taylor Clark - Go Fund Me set-up & coordination (which raised over $16,000)
• Dance Team (setup & serving)
• Carrie Schweer - Head Chef
• The Kitchen Crew:
• Missy Poland Wisniewski, Julie Kudron, Dawn Sornson, Lilly Kennedy, Sheryl Henderson, Sarah Saar, Gina Chapman, Janet Tiarks, Dawn Ediger, Lea Ann Dea, Rosalie Soloth, Candace Gregory, Jolene Lammert, Becky Dickerson, Patty Walter

Auction Donations (over 130 items). See slideshow for donations & donors: http://tinyurl.com/nqqfsnh

Auction Bidders ( you know who you are!)

B&Bs, Boyd & Bev - boiling all the spaghetti when the stove at the Community Center failed

The “Muscle” behind the Coordinators, Tandy Bailey & Dan Strutzenberg

My “Right Hands”: Audrey Reed & Amy Graber

Patty Walters - endless supply of help during and after the event

Optimist for the 50/50 Raffle (Dee Guttau, Chase Wells, John Klein & Judy Guttau)

Sally Myers - stepping up to help collect and call auction winners after

Tyler Radcliff -- videographer

Michelle Garside Photography - photo booth to capture memories of the night

Dalton Clark - guest book & counting $$

Austin Hiers - guest table & help counting $$

Michael Guidry - t-shirt sales

And, because I am most likely forgetting someone, take a look at these awesome pictures and you can see just how many people helped and came out to support #TeamEllen: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.stolz.7/media_set?set=a.1158896597470364&type=1

To sum it all up, there really are no adequate words but just to say THANK YOU to everyone for caring enough to set aside time and money to help a special young woman and her family.