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Benefit slated for comatose teen
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| By: THERESE APEL, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
November 09, 2009 |
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Brookhaven Academy junior Callie Cole was injured Sept. 10 in an accident on Highway 583, and still remains in a coma two months later.
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Cole's 2008 Chevrolet Malibu collided with some heavy equipment on the side of the highway as she made her way home from a softball game the night of the 10th, officials said. The 16-year-old daughter of Frances and Tommy Cole was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she has remained in a coma ever since.
As such, the Enterprise community decided to pull together, as they do when things get tough for their own people, and raise the money for Cole to have an experimental procedure that could bring her back to consciousness.
The "Helping Hands for Callie" committee decided to host a shrimp dinner on Friday, Nov. 20, hoping that the money raised will help offset costs for her stay at Shepherd's Center in Georgia, where she continues her fight, area residents said.
"This is our way of trying to help them," said Brenda Sasser, a long-time friend of the family. "That's the reason we're trying to help them, so they don't quite have so much to worry about."
The Brookhaven Academy community has held some fundraisers and rallied prayer support, Sasser said, and the people of the Enterprise community have banded together as well. In recent years they have done several fundraisers for people in need. They are mustering up support for Cole, because she is one of their own.
Sasser said there are new procedures that could make the difference for Cole if anything can.
"There's a new drug that, the way I understand it, that if she's ever going to wake up this will wake her up," she said. "So she's going to Atlanta to get the drug, she and Frances will be there for six weeks."
The event, which will feature gospel singing, a silent auction, and a cutlery display, will take place at the Lincoln Center, Sasser said. People can buy tickets in advance for boiled shrimp plates. "Helping Hands for Callie" members said it would help if people buy their tickets as early as possible so that there will be a count of how many plates need to be made.
Plates can be picked up from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sasser said, and can be bought any time in the meantime from a committee member.
Anyone interested in a shrimp plate or in volunteering help or donations for Cole can call Sara Nelson at (601) 833-8337, Cydnee Russell at (601) 734-2534, or Cheri Lou Altman at (601) 734-6361.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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