The Benefit of Community
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 7, 2006
LAKEWOOD – Larry Busch’s friends and family have been rallying around him ever since the young Mukilteo man suffered a serious spinal injury in Costa Rica in March.
Sunday, it was the community’s turn.
More than 100 people showed up at a benefit auction for Busch at Lakewood Middle School. Only a few of those present were known to his family.
“I know three or four people here,” said Teri Busch, 21, Larry’s sister, as she looked around the school cafeteria.
Some were attracted by the items up for auction, including a football used in Super Bowl XL. But they also were happy to contribute to the cause.
“We did follow the story,” said Rob Dahl of Lakewood, who came to the auction with his wife, Cari.
Sunday’s auction raised $7,630, said Jackie Eaton of Lakewood, who, along with Megan Hartje of Silver Lake, organized the event. The two are friends of Busch’s mother, Peggy.
Sunday’s total adds to the $30,000 already raised through Busch’s University of Washington fraternity, Zeta Psi, and other efforts. Another benefit is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave. in Mukilteo, with food, live music and a silent auction.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of support, it’s truly unbelievable,” Peggy Busch said last week. She has been spending most of her time with her son at the UW Medical Center and did not attend Sunday’s event.
Peggy Busch works in the dietary department at Everett’s Providence Medical Center, where Eaton is an occupational therapist and Hartje a physical therapist. The three know each other from serving on a hospital committee together.
Eaton and Hartje spent three weeks calling more than 50 businesses and organizations, which put up 148 items for auction. Janet Wakefield, a former neighbor of the Busches in Harbor Pointe who now lives in Arlington and teaches at Lakewood Middle School, also helped.
They enlisted Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall and former Arlington Police Chief Steve Robinson to help at the event.
Silent auction items up for sale included tickets to the Skagit Speedway, a round of golf for four at Kayak Point, studio portraits and massages.
Sports memorabilia, sold at a live auction, was the big attraction. Debbie Pope of Darrington outbid two others to the tune of $775 for the Super Bowl ball, autographed by Seattle Seahawk running back Shaun Alexander. She bought it for her son, Dennis Pope, 18, who is graduating from high school this year.
“He really wanted it,” she said.
“I’m shaking,” said her son, wearing a Seahawks jacket, jersey and hat as he held the ball.
A signed game jersey worn by Seattle SuperSonic Luke Ridnour fetched $325 and a baseball signed by Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Jamie Moyer sold for $90.
Larry Busch, 22, was co-captain of the tennis team at Kamiak High School. He broke a vertebra in his neck when he landed awkwardly while playing with friends in the surf on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. He is paralyzed from the neck down, breathing with the aid of a ventilator and able to talk only through a valve in his throat.
Busch is six credits away from graduating from the UW with a business degree. He is holding up well emotionally considering his situation, friends and family members said.
Doctors have said he might be able to return home in June.
“We’re praying that he will fully recover,” Peggy Busch said. “We’re just trying to get him to breathe on his own. We’re happy he’s alive and he’s got his mind intact.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
