Community Continues To Reach Out

Volunteers gathered this week to help prepare for remodeling efforts at the Zickefoose home.

Volunteers gathered this week to help prepare for remodeling efforts at the Zickefoose home.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The saying goes that many hands make light work. With that in mind, at least two dozen volunteers arrived at the Zickefoose doorstep this week to help move furniture, remove carpeting and demolish spaces within the home to enable remodeling.

The remodel is being done to widen doorways, install a roll-in shower, and to provide ramps and new electrical outlets to help facilitate Tyler Zickefoose’s return on the 31st of July. Tyler was injured in an ATV accident on Easter Sunday.

Joe Versteegh is a recent graduate of OHS, but came out because he personally knows the Zickefoose family. Eventually, Versteegh got to know Shane Zickefoose, Tyler’s father, through sports. “I just have a lot of respect for him (Shane) and I’ve gotten to know Tyler this last year with football. I have a lot of respect, and I like to come out and show that.”

Seeing all of the various people out helping the family, Versteegh added, “I think it’s amazing just the way the community has come together just to show one family how much we care about them. It’s been really amazing to me.”

Across town at the Old Community Stadium, Abby Osborn, Bob Drost and his wife Cathy, held a Community Wellness benefit. Their hopes were to raise money to help three area individuals recently impacted by spinal cord injuries. Tyler Zickefoose, Cole Nilson and Brandt Ringgenberg.

Osborn was going to be back in town for a couple of weeks and knew some of the families impacted by the recent injuries. “So I decided to put 2 and 2 together, and I wanted to help them out through the way I knew how, and that was through a workout.”

Participants took part in a 30 minute workout utilizing body weight techniques. “Showing people no matter where they’re at, they can get a good workout in,” said Osborn.

“I’m very overwhelmed by the response we got on short notice,” said Osborn. “Anything that we can provide them to get to see their loved ones. Whether it’s gas cards, money to help them do work on their houses.”

That was followed up by a presentation by Cathy on nutrition.

The wellness event raised just over $800 to help the families.

Posted by on Jun 19 2014. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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