HERMITAGE —  

Penny Strechansky said she knew there was a spirit of giving in the area, where people help each other in times of need.

But the response since she put out word that her family needs help has been overwhelming, she said.

“The outpour is unreal,” she said. “I just can’t believe the way the community has come out to help us.”

Ms. Strechansky, her husband Paul, and daughter Patty Johnson, are working to bring home Ms. Johnson’s son, David, who suffered a serious brain injury in a June 19 car crash in Lawrence County. He has been back and forth between a hospital, a nursing home and a rehabilitation center.

To accomplish that, the family needs to build a room just for him onto their Hermitage home. The rooms, doorways and hallways are not large enough for Johnson’s wheelchair and medical equipment.

The story has touched people in many ways. Next door neighbor Johnny “Guitar” Vinzant has organized a benefit April 18 at the Clark House, Clark, featuring music by himself and others. A woman who has never met anyone in the family but whose husband was injured in a serious car crash, is organizing a fundraising benefit. And, a group of local contractors is working to build the addition.

Vinzant said his daughter, Amber, grew up with Johnson, and they graduated together from Hickory High School. The families shared backyard cookouts, birthday parties and swimming.

“David was a very outgoing kid,” Vinzant said. “Whatever he put his mind to, I knew he could do.”

“I can’t imagine what they’re going through,” Vinzant said of his neighbors.

But, it’s clear that their goal is true.

“He needs to be home,” Vinzant said.

Beth Campbell agrees, and she comes to that opinion from first-hand experience. Her husband, Dennis, was injured in a car crash 20 years ago, and was not expected to survive. But, survive he did and, when it was time for him to leave the hospital, there were two options: enter a nursing home or come home.

Mrs. Campbell had four kids ages 3 to 14 at the time. She couldn’t be two places at once, and her older children were adamant: he had to come home.

The Perry Township woman said having her husband home made all the difference in his recovery. He was surrounded by people he loved, and who constantly said that they loved him, Mrs. Campbell said. He was able to be at all of his kids’ baseball games.

“For three years he didn’t talk, for 10 years he was angry and now he’s pretty good,” Mrs. Campbell said.

Aside from regaining the ability to talk, Campbell has the use of an arm and can do some personal chores himself that used to require help.

Campbell has two grandchildren who “climb all over him,” his wife said.

“They never would have been able to do that if he had been in a nursing home,” she added.

The amount of work that needed to be done to care for her husband and her family was staggering, but the community pitched in, she said. For the first six months, the parishioners of Countryside Evangelical Congregational Church, Clarks Mills, cooked hot meals for the family. For three years, friends came to help exercise Campbell, which made him able to begin rehabilitation. Others held fundraisers.

Upon hearing Johnson’s story, Mrs. Campbell noted the similarities to her own experience.

“I think it’s (coming home) really important for this man to get any better,” she said. “He needs to be around people who love him.”

Mrs. Campbell is organizing a fundraiser May 27 at Hickory High School that will include a live auction, concession stand, bake sale and raffle. She said she wanted to do this because of the community support her family received after her husband’s accident.

A group of local contractors, who want to remain anonymous, are drawing up plans for the addition to the Strechansky home, and will round up labor and materials, a spokesman said.

The plans should be shown to the family soon, and will then be submitted to the city.

The spokesman said there are people willing to raise money for materials, if need be.

“We’re hoping to get it built at no cost to Paul and Penny,” he said.

The Strechansky-Johnson family is planning an April 25 pasta dinner at the Sharpsville Veterans of Foreign Wars. Joy Cone Co., Mrs. Strechansky’s employer, is sponsoring the event.

Mrs. Strechansky said there is no way she could thank everybody who has helped in her quest to bring her grandson home.

“I’ll never be able to put a full list together of people I need to thank,” she said.

Perhaps, she will not need to. The outpouring has changed her, she said, making her more aware of community needs and what she can do to help others.

“I would never, ever turn my back on anybody,” she said.

“That’s what communities are for, that’s what neighbors are for — to help each other,” Vinzant said.

Benefits for David Johnson

These benefits are planned to help the Strechansky/Johnson family in their effort to add onto their home so that their grandson, who was seriously injured in a car crash, can live with them:

• Musicians Charity Benefit for David Johnson, 3 to 8 p.m. April 18 at the Clark House, Valley View Road, Clark. Performing will be: Johnny “Guitar” Vinzant, who is organizing the event with his wife, Paula; the MTZ; the Hellbenders; and former members of the River Saints and Grant Street Exit. There will be a Chinese auction from 3 to 6 p.m., and meals available to buy. Tickets are available in advance from the Vinzants at 724-346-0621. If there are any tickets left, they will be sold at the door.

• The Strechansky/Johnson family is organizing a pasta dinner from noon to 4 p.m. April 25 at Sharpsville Veterans of Foreign Wars. Joy Cone Co., Hermitage, is sponsoring the dinner, and tickets will be sold at the door. Takeouts will be available.

• Beth Campbell of Perry Township is organizing a benefit auction, bake sale, raffle and concession stand at 6 p.m. May 27 in Hickory High School, Hermitage. Cresswell Auction Service is donating its services. Businesses and churches will be asked to donate items, and churches will be asked to bake goods. Mrs. Campbell can be reached at 724-456-2592.

• The Strechansky/Johnson family has established the David Johnson Fund at First National Bank. Donations can be made at any branch.