Community helps family in need

There are good, caring people in Cleveland County and the region, and Sharon Crocker and her family have met many of them. The complete story will be published in Tuesday's Star, but here are the highlights:

In February, Sharon and her family started the process to raise money to pay off a handicapped-accessible van and build an addition on her parent’s house. Sharon was paralyzed from her chest down in a dirt bike accident in September 2006. She spent 19 days in intensive care. She died and was brought back to life. They told her she’d never walk again. She’d never feed herself. She would never raise or use her arms or move her head again.Through hard work and physical therapy, she can do everything but walk.

The outpouring of love from friends and strangers alike is overwhelming to Sharon and her family.

"I’d worked in health care for 20-something years and there I was on the helping end," Sharon said. "Now I’m not able to do like I was and people are coming out of the woodwork to help me."

She and her two children, Faron and Landon, moved back in with her parents, Barbara and Bill Crocker of Shelby. There are two bedrooms in the house for five people.

"Our clothes are folded up and pushed in every nook and cranny of the house," Sharon explains.
In the new addition, which has been built with volunteer labor, Sharon and her children will have their own space. There is a handicap-accessible shower, where Sharon dreams of being able to take a shower for the first time in more than a year.

The $12,000 they raised from their first fundraiser was enough to get the room completely in the dry. The money went a long way because items were donated or discounted for the project.
The family needs between $3,000 and $5,000 to finish the new addition.

Everyone involved in the project is confident the money will be raised and another fundraiser is planned for Sept. 22.

"We’ve seen so many blessings in the past year, we can’t name them all," said Barbara, Sharon’s mom. "People have come in from everywhere. We’ve had times that we needed things and didn’t know where they were going to come from and people would call or come by and bring what we needed."

Want to help?
You can help Sharon Crocker and her family raise the money to finish the addition to the Crocker house.
When: Saturday, Sept. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Where: Shelby High School
What: Poor Man’s supper with pork roast, pintos, coleslaw, onions, dessert and drink. The meal will be cooked by Sharon's cousin, Cheryle Cook and Linda and Ray Jackson.
Cost: $8 for adults and $5 for children 4-12
Drawings: When you buy a ticket for the meal, you are automatically entered in a drawing for items donated by local businesses, including Arnold’s Jewelry and Hendrick’s.