NFF hits $38,000
By Justin Strawser
The Daily Item
NEW COLUMBIA – Robert and Jo Lynn Francis spent their 21st wedding anniversary in 2018 in the hospital. While driving home from work on July 20,2018, Robert Francis had a massive stroke and developed lock-in syndrome. Also known as pseudocoma, the rare neurological disorder completely paralyzes all voluntary muscles except for the ones that control the movements of the eyes. Individuals with locked-in syndrome are conscious and awake, but have no ability to produce movements (outside of eye movement) or to speak (aphonia).
She was unable to sign up for the first round of the Salvation Army Needy Family Fund last month, but the organization made time specifically for her in the second round. They have two of five children ages 7 and 14 still living at home and are living off Robert’s Social Security benefits.
“We used the Salvation Army years ago when the (older) kids were little, but we got better jobs and didn’t need it again until now,” she said.
Robert Francis, now age 53, was healthy and had no signs that anything was wrong until that day. He was driving home on his motorcycle and started feeling strange. He stopped near the Bonanza in New Columbia and called for help, she said, “He drives a big truck for his job, he rides a motorcycle, he comes home to nap,’ said Jo Lynn Francis. ‘Most of the people who have these strokes are found postmortem.”
Francis now takes care of her husband full time with the help of a caretaker and aide. He can lift his head, move his arms, and communicate with his eyes. Some people recover from the syndrome, but others do not, she said. She said she is grateful that the Needy Family Fund is there to help her young children. “I want something to make them happy,” she said.
Since 1987, the Salvation Army’s Needy Family Fund, sponsored by The Daily Item, Sunbury Broadcasting Corp. and Mifflinburg Bank & Trust, has raised more than $2.9 million during the holidays to assist the Valley’s less fortunate. It is administered by Salvation Army citadels in Milton and Sunbury.
This year’s goal is $100,000. Today’s total is $38,171.22 thanks to $500 from Todd and Ann Mattern, of Beavertown; $100 from Maryellen Paulhamus, of Northumberland; $100 from Barry and Andrea Shoemaker, of Mifflinburg; $50 from Karen Sobol, of Lewisburg; $100 from Selinsgrove Area School District Dress Down Day; $100 from John Snyder, of Freeburg; $100 from John Kreighbaum, of Middleburg; $200 from
Todd and Kimberly Brosius, of Sunbury; $250 from Ann Weatherill, of Lewisburg; $50 from Eunice Troxell in honor of volunteers of Selinsgrove Senior Center; $200 from Norma Shutter, of Selinsgrove; $50 from Steven and Kim Rank, of Lewisburg; $100 in memory of Joyce and Irvin Snyder, of Sunbury; and $25.64 from Lisa Boden. There was also $441.28 in anonymous donations.
Donors can make checks payable to The Needy Family Fund and mail or drop them off to any location of program co-sponsor Mifflinburg Bank & Trust. Donors can also mail a check to 250 E. Chestnut St., Mifflinburg, Pa., 17844, or donate online at www. mbtc.com/donate-to-the-needyfamily- fund.
