Peggy Revell
Call it an up-“lifting” story.
After fundraising efforts by Safeway here, local teen William Moody Jr. now has a brand new portable lift to help with his mobility.
Moody, who was born with spina bifida and requires a wheelchair to get around, was selected by Safeway staff to be focus of its 2007-08 “We Care” campaign.
“It was wonderful, it was amazing, it was unbelievable,” Val Calder, Moody’s grandmother, said about Safeway’s campaign that aimed to raise the $15,000 needed to purchase and install the lift through various fundraisers like the “Air Miles Bring Smiles” promotion and “Show Your Heart” coupon books.
It was the first time the “We Care” campaign also focused on raising funds to help out an individual within the community, rather than a local non-profit group.
“It’s really a good thing,” Calder added, explaining how the lift will give her grandson and those caring for him better mobility to go up and down stairs and enter or leave the family’s home.
“And he can do it on his own—he just has to press the key,” she noted.
Moody, who will be 16 in November and hoping to head into Grade 10 this year, enjoys activities like bowling and curling, spending time at the cabin, and walks to Tim Hortons for vanilla cappuccinos, said Calder.
He’s also a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan, she noted, although she added with a laugh that with all his relatives being Leafs’ fans, he doesn’t have much of a choice on the matter.
“He’s taught us so many things,” she added. “Like perseverance, grit, and hope.”
For the first eight years of his life, Moody was treated through the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, with the support of the Easter Seals Society and local Kiwanis Club.
He then was under the care of the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Montreal.
Over the years, they’ve “lost count” of the number of surgeries he’s had, Calder said, but she praised the care he’s seen from doctors and nurses who have done everything possible for him.
“They’re absolutely wonderful,” she enthused. “It was a wonderful group of doctors.”
As well, the family’s church, the Church of the Holy Spirit, has been a “wonderful group all these years,” Calder said.
Besides Safeway, Calder said other local businesses have rallied around the family to support them, including the staff at Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, and Shoppers Drug Mart.
“We can’t thank enough people,” she stressed.
