GIFT STRUMMING HEARTSTRINGS youth BIG & Rich in charity





Kenny Alphin (left) and John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich.







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The U12 Culpeper Comets decided to use any raffle proceeds to help others.



Soccer team to raffle off Big & Rich guitar to help families in need
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON


Date published: 10/3/2007

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

It is a case of kids wanting to help others instead of themselves.

A few weeks ago, country music stars Big & Rich donated an autographed guitar to the U12 Culpeper Comets to help the travel soccer team raise money.

Kenny Alphin (aka Big Kenny) is from Culpeper and he and Paul Bates went to school together and remain friends.

So, when Bates' daughter, Quinn-Lynn, began wondering how she might help her soccer team raise money, Bates called Alphin and asked him to donate something the girls could raffle off.

"Kenny sent a guitar," says Donna Bates, Paul's wife. "It is a three-quarter size Squire, made by Fender."

The acoustic guitar is autographed by Big & Rich and also contains the individual signatures of Alphin and John Rich.

The guitar was so impressive that the soccer team wasn't content to raffle it off simply to raise money for new uniforms and to travel to tournaments.

"They wanted to do something to benefit the community with it," says Bates.

At about the same time the guitar arrived, Culpeper plumbing contractor Butch Mills was seriously injured in a ditch collapse.

"Butch's daughter, Sierra, had played on this team a few years ago, so the girls decided it would be nice to help his family," Bates says.

They also wanted to help the family of local resident Lee Linthicum, who has been stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease.

"They decided to raffle off the Big & Rich guitar and split all the proceeds between the two families," Bates says.

Here the adults took over. Donna Bates, a team mom, and Careen Laster Angel, the team manager, began looking into how to set up such a raffle. Predictably, there were legal hurdles that took the team several weeks to overcome.

No matter what the obstacles, Bates says the players wouldn't let the adults give up. "The girls were really determined to do this," she says.

Legally, the Culpeper Soccer Association is sponsoring the raffle. But the girls are making it happen.

"One girl has already gone through her neighborhood and sold a book of tickets," Bates says.

"The soccer girls really feel good about this," she adds.

Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...0032007/322060

Grandfather's death prompts Troutville 12-year-old to help raise money to find a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease
Mary Bishop


Kelsey Conley with a picture of her and her grandfather John Calvin Conley Sr.

Kelsey Conley still keeps a close eye on the Boston Red Sox, just like she and her granddad always did.

John Calvin Conley Sr. had been an athlete and Sox fan all his life, and when Kelsey starting pitching fastpitch softball in Botetourt County, he was there in the stands, cheering her on.

But about a year ago, the robust man who had traveled the world for shipbuilding and manufacturing companies was struggling just to get to her ball games.

He was dying of ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neuromuscular illness also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Kelsey, 11 then, had watched the slow loss of his motor skills with careful attention, and when it came time for her 4-H club's public speaking competition, she knew just what she'd talk about—her granddad and the disease that was taking him away from her.

Last school year, the Troutville girl won a 4-H district competition for her research on ALS and her description of the suffering it caused her grandfather and her family. "...the doctors have already put a feeding tube into my grandpa to prepare for when he can no longer swallow or use his mouth," she told the judges.

"As you can see, my grandpa and family are in a position that a person would not want to be in." The disorder causes progressive muscle weakness and attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.

Over time, ALS leads to total paralysis, leaving people unable to move, speak, swallow and, ultimately, breathe.
In many cases, the mind is unaffected.

As yet, there is no cure.

When John Conley, 75, of Southwest Roanoke County, finally died in March, Kelsey was the only family member to speak at his funeral.

"She spoke about ALS and how it was a terrible disease that took him too early," said her mother, Kecia Conley. "And she said how much she would miss him. There was not a dry eye after she was done. I was so proud."

Kelsey, now 12 and a seventh-grader at Read Mountain Middle School, will be walking with her parents, Jeff and Kecia Conley, her 14-year-old brother, Brogan, and other family members at the Walk to D'Feet ALS, a fundraiser at Hollins University on Sunday, Oct. 7.

It will be the third time Kelsey has participated in walks to raise money for ALS research and services to patients.

She's helping her mother and the local committee of the ALS Association's DC/MD/VA Chapter organize the walk.

"It is truly difficult to watch someone you love, who was so vibrant and full of life, so athletic and healthy, lose the ability to move around, to speak clearly and do simple tasks such as turn off a light or lift a glass of milk," Kecia Conley said.

"It is truly heartbreaking because you can't do anything to stop it." But to honor John Conley, his family plans to keep working and try to help stop it altogether.

http://ourvalley.org/news.php?viewStory=1646