By Mike Pound
mpound@joplinglobe.com
Katie Smith has never met Brice Porter.
She hopes to meet Brice, 14, when he returns to Carl Junction after he is finished with his cancer treatments at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Katie has met Brice’s dad, Matt, and she spoke to Brice’s mother when she called to thank Katie for organizing a fundraiser for the family.
“The family says he’s doing well,” Katie said.
As young people go, Katie is your basic good one. The 20-year-old sophomore at Missouri Southern State University is in the university’s honors program, majoring in English and early childhood education. When she’s not in school or studying, Katie works 10 to 15 hours a week at Randy’s Drive-in in Carl Junction, and 30 to 35 hours a week at a Carl Junction preschool.
By any account, Katie has a pretty full schedule that even she will acknowledge doesn’t allow her much free time. So why, I asked, did she decide to burn what little free time she had to ramrod a fundraiser for a kid she had never met?
The answer, Katie said, has to do with a picture. The picture is on one of those jars you see at businesses all the time. Jars that come with a picture of a child and a request for donations. Someone who knows Brice placed such a jar at Randy’s Drive-in. Katie, who has a brother Brice’s age, took one look at the photo and knew she had to do something.
“When I saw his picture, I couldn’t turn away,” she said. “You know what I mean?”
After pausing for a second, she said, “I’m sorry. I get a little emotional. But I couldn’t get him out of my mind.”
Earlier this year, Brice broke his leg. While treating his leg, doctors discovered that Brice had bone cancer. He was given a few options, and none of them were attractive. After much discussion, Brice agreed to let doctors amputate his leg. The agreement came only after doctors assured Brice that he would be fitted with a prosthetic that would allow him to do many of the things he was able to do before he got sick. Chief among those things, Katie said, was skateboarding.
Brice likes his skateboarding, Katie said with a smile.
Brice is at Children’s Mercy undergoing chemotherapy and adjusting to the loss of his leg. The frequent trips to Kansas City — the gas, the food, the lodging — are wearing on the Porter family budget.
So Katie decided to help.
The fundraiser Katie organized was pretty simple. Between 5 p.m. and midnight on Friday, March 26, any customer who donated a dollar for Brice would receive a free ice cream cone. In the days before the fundraiser, Katie passed out fliers around town and generally tried to get the word out.
“I was thinking if we can just raise a couple hundred dollars, it will at least be more than they had before the fundraiser,” Katie said.
Katie and friends raised more than that. Way more.
“The place was packed, and people were spilling out of the building,” Katie said.
Basically what happened is that pretty much the entire community of Carl Junction came together to help one of their own. Many of the folks who showed up for the $1 ice cream donated more than a dollar. And people who wanted to donate but couldn’t make it to the event sent money with folks who could.
Katie said her boss, Randy Roy, didn’t hesitate when she asked about holding the fundraiser at the restaurant. She said Randy’s current employees and several former employees worked the event for free.
“This was a community effort,” Katie said. “It was a success because people heard about it and wanted to help. It was because of the people who know Brice and his family, and even people who didn’t know them.”
I mentioned to Katie that the real story here is the way the folks in Carl Junction came together to help a neighbor having a tough go of it, and she quickly agreed.
“I love my community,” she said.
Katie has lived in Carl Junction all of her life. She said she is proud to be from Carl Junction.
I’m sure that’s true. But I’m also sure that the folks in town are proud that Katie is from Carl Junction.
They should be.
Donations
A fund for Brice Porter has been established at Community Bank & Trust in Carl Junction. Donations may be sent to: In Care of Brice Porter, Community Bank & Trust, 101 S. Main St., Carl Junction, MO 64834.
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