By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
ROCKWELL ó Gather together about a dozen men on a Saturday morning.
Truck in stacks of lumber.
Have a couple of guys draw out a plan.
Assign others to saws, hammers, chalk lines and post-hole diggers.
Stand clear.
You now have the recipe for a new front porch deck and wheelchair ramp for 8-year-old Hailey Jackson.
Amy Jackson, Hailey’s mother, watched in amazement Saturday as the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent in Ken Krenzer and his fellow volunteers from Catawba County to make her family’s life a little easier.
“It’s awesome,” Amy said. “Ken did a good job rounding people up.”
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to children (2 to 18) with terminal or life-threatening conditions.
Krenzer first made contact with Cliff and Amy Jackson last year to determine how the foundation could help Hailey, who suffers with Trisomy 9, a rare chromosome disorder that has caused a host of medical problems since her premature birth.
Hailey is 8 years old biologically, but mentally and physically she is more like a 6-month-old.
She has impaired vision and no speech. She can’t swallow and receives all her nourishment from a feeding tube. She can’t walk, and anything like a common cold is life-threatening to her.
The Jacksons keep a sign on their front door asking that anybody with the hint of a cold or virus not come in the house.
Last year, an obstructed bowel almost cost Hailey’s life. It led to surgery and complications, and it forced doctors to induce a coma that lasted for about a week.
During the coma, Hailey’s lungs collapsed. Doctors told the Jacksons she was the sickest person at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast Medical Center. For 24 hours, before they would bring her out of the coma, doctors didn’t know if the little girl would survive.
But Hailey rallied immediately after coming out of the deep sleep.
“She’s the strongest person I have ever known,” Amy Jackson said.
Krenzer and Dan Barker determined that year that Hailey first needed a new wheelchair. They settled on a custom-fit, motorized edition that will grow with Hailey, who is now 60 pounds.
The purple wheelchair arrived in January, but Krenzer wanted Make-A-Wish Foundation to do more, deciding that Hailey’s new mode of transportation deserved a better ramp from the Jacksons’ front door to the driveway.
All the Jacksons had was a ramp with no rails leading into the grass in front.
“It was just a piece of wood,” Amy said.
To build the new structure, Krenzer drafted volunteers from the men’s group at Rehobeth United Methodist Church in Terrell.
The building crew Saturday included Krenzer, Chuck Alexander, Mike Hamby, Dr. Pete Enyeart, Norm Goelzer, Charlie Glassey, Larry Herbert, John Pellor, Steve Sessions and Mike Bostic. Cliff Alexander and Jason Long, a cousin of Amy’s, also made themselves available.
Alexander persuaded Enyeart, a neighbor, to join the crew.
“Pete got involved with this because he ate dinner with me last night,” Alexander confided.
As the men worked through the morning and into the afternoon, they paused for a lunch put together by Krenzer and Amy Jackson. It included barbecue, baked beans, drinks and snacks.
“Ken likes to eat, and he likes to visit,” one of the men said.
Krenzer has been doing volunteer projects for kids through the Make-A-Wish Foundation for some 20 years. Retired from Duke Energy after 33 years, he now serves as transportation coordinator at The Pines retirement community in Davidson.
His Make-A-Wish Foundation work touches four counties, including Rowan. He credited Ken Howard, the manager at the Lowe’s store in Salisbury, with selling the lumber for the ramp project at a 50 percent discount.
Over the years, Amy and Cliff Jackson have relied on Bayada home-health nurses such as Mindy Mullis to help with the constant care of Hailey. Since her birth and the enormous hospital bills that followed her six-month stay in the hospital, the couple have been in a constant fundraising mode.
The Food Lion corporate office ó Amy works as a pharmacy technician at a store in Salisbury ó raised more than $30,000 toward a new bedroom/bathroom addition for the Jacksons’ house on Palmer Road. It’s done in a Sesame Street motif and has become Hailey’s favorite place for playing on her mat, listening to her musical toys and taking showers, which she loves.
Her best friend has become the Jacksons’ 18-month-old daughter, Hannah, who routinely sits on Hailey’s lap and even knows when to cut off Hailey’s feeding pump.
“She’s the big, little sister,” Amy says.
These days, the big challenge is getting Hailey in and out of cars so she can go places, including her doctors. Amy borrows her mother’s van because she and Cliff can’t get Hailey and her wheelchair in and out of their Mercury any longer.
Amy has turned to raising funds again on her own toward the purchase of a specialized van that could accommodate Hailey and her new wheelchair. She has been relying on yard sales and “Hugs for Hailey” bracelets. On Nov. 8, the Rockwell Amvets Post is conducting a tournament at McCanless Golf Tournament in which the proceeds will go toward a van.
“We’re very excited,” Amy said.