Help For Walter Churchill
*This isn't a regular news story.
Chris Popper of WDEA is looking for help for Walter Churchill and has asked for us to help spread the word. There’s currently no point person yet, and no firm details about when Walter will get home, but Chris wants to make sure that the MDI spirit and community is ready to help this man who has helped so many. If there ends up being a GoFundMe or when the place for or
For those of you who don’t know, Walter was hit while photographing the boys’ football championship on Saturday, November 11. There are further details from Chris below.
Chris writes,
For well over 15 years Walter Churchill has been chronicling the action photos of MDI High School Teams. Whether it's been football, basketball, soccer, or track and field, he's been at most games taking magazine quality photos of MDI's teams. Now, Walter is going to need your help!
As of Sunday afternoon, November 12th, he was in surgery to have a hip replacement. He was injured on Saturday, November 11th while on the sidelines of the MDI-Greely State Finals Football Game. A player rolled into him from behind, resulting in the broken hip.
Hopefully he's going to be able to be driven back down to the Island on Monday or Tuesday, and be discharged to his home. But at 81, this isn't a quick surgery to bounce back, even though he's in incredibly good condition. And did you know that he's made 700 successful parachute jumps from planes in his younger days! And there wasn't 1 unsuccessful jump!
He's not going to be able to drive for a period of time. He's not going to be able to get to the store for groceries on his own. He's not going to be able snowblow/shovel his driveway and walkway. (He does have a snowblower). I'm not sure how easily he's going to be able to cook meals.
So once again I am turning to the wonderful Downeast community to come to someone's assistance. This should be a relatively easy ask given how Walter has positively impacted just about every MDI Trojan sport team. Can you help? I can't do it on a daily basis, living in Bangor. We need someone to be responsive for plowing/snowblowing. We need someone to organize trips to the grocery store or do the shopping for him. We need someone to organize a meal train. If you step up, I can funnel volunteers to you.
I hope this is a easy ask, and those that have benefitted from Walter's generosity for over 15 years, will step up to help him in his hours of need.
Chris has a post on Facebook that you can share to help spread the word, too.
Read More:Walter Churchill Will Need Your Help When He Returns Home|