When David and Lindsey Willis' oldest daughter was born, the two were faced with the fear that grips scores of new parents - something was wrong with their baby.
Harper was born with hip dysplasia and, at 8 months old, underwent surgery to repair her hip at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City, where the family lived at the time. The little girl spent more than three months in a half-body cast, but today, at 4 years old, evidence that Harper's ability to walk was ever in jeopardy is almost non-existent, and she runs and plays with her younger sister "like nothing ever happened," David said.
"They did an outstanding job in every aspect of it," David said. "She's a normal kid. It's like nothing ever happened."
Lindsey, who grew up in Harts, had been told by a family friend to visit a Shriners hospital. Despite having health insurance at the time, the Willises were worried about medical bills, but Shiners hospitals provide free medical care to children who need it. That's because the hospitals are supported by the Shriners, a subset of the Freemasons that supports more than 20 hospitals in North America through the local philanthropy of more than 350,000 members in more than 195 Shriners temples across the world.
The couple donates to the Shriners regularly now, but this Christmas, Lindsey and David wanted to do something different. The family lives in Moundsville now, and Lindsey, who has her own photography business, offered a series of "mini-sessions" to her customers to raise money, which the Willis' used to buy dozens of toys.
When the family showed up, toys in hand, to the Beni Kedem Shrine in Charleston, Bill Gordon was floored.
"[Lindsey] said 'we want to pay the Shriners back,' and the first thing I said was 'we don't take money. It's OK,' and she said 'no, we want to give these toys,'" he said.
Gordon, known at Beni Kedem as "Mr. Bill," is the transportation coordinator at the temple, and is responsible for arranging trips for children and families to a nearby Shriners hospital able to meet their needs, usually in Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati; Philadelphia or Erie, Pennsylvania. In his role, Gordon will arrange for a van to take the toys to one of the hospitals in the next week, where they will be given to children currently receiving care - many for serious and even life-threatening conditions.
"You never see a bill at a Shriners hospital - that's what we're all about," Gordon said. "We sponsor all of these children, and we try to help the families as much as we can ... our hospitals are doing better, and what I mean by 'doing better' is that they're not losing money as fast as they used to. We'd be down $2 million in one month, because everything is charity."
Since the first Shriners hospital opened its doors in 1922, more than 250,000 children have been treated at a Shriners hospital for everything from spinal cord injuries to third-degree burns to Harper Willis' hip dysplasia.
"We are interested in the children - we don't care what it costs," said Tom Black, the recorder at Beni Kedem.
Shriners hospitals accept children regardless of parents' ability to pay, and place no income limitations on the families that visit the hospitals.
Beni Kedem hosts several different Shriners clubs, and like Shriners across the world, they hold a slew of different fundraisers, from hosting golf tournaments to selling onions, to raise money for the hospitals and transportation. To learn more about Charleston's Beni Kedem shrine, Shriners hospitals or how to donate to the Shriners, call 304-343-9405 or visit www.benikedemshriners.org.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at
lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow
@lydianuzum on Twitter.