They got a little help from their 'friends'
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 20, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Amber Capps and resident Sarah Rakstraw move a cart full of chickens in the kitchen at RHA Howell Care Center Bear Creek on Wednesday. Five hundred leg quarters were donated for the facility's chicken plate fundraiser.
Sometimes all it takes to get a little help from your friends is to ask.
So, on Nov. 11, Amber Capps posted a Facebook status. Her nonprofit employer, RHA Howell Care Center Bear Creek in LaGrange, needed help.
The care center was planning a fundraiser dinner for Friday and needed 500 half-chickens to cook and to sell to raise money to pay for transportation costs for a trip to the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer.
No such luck when she requested help from a local plant.
The denial was disappointing, but Ms. Capps decided to take action.
"I started emailing everyone I could think of -- Butterball, Case Farms, you name it," she said. "Then thought, well, I have 3,000 friends on Facebook, maybe somebody can help me out."
Then, the replies to her Facebook status began rolling in. Former workers at the center and friends alike began volunteering to provide any help they possibly could.
Just two and a half hours after she posted the request, a local company -- which wishes to remain anonymous -- reached out and volunteered to provide the chickens for the event.
After that, Ms. Capps set up a GoFundMe page where people could donate to the cause.
Her status continued to be shared, and the responses kept rolling in.
Then, a little later, a famous Kinston native, Chris Hatcher -- the pitcher for the Miami Marlins -- reached out and said he and his wife wished to donate to the cause.
After the outpouring of support from the community, the trip to the museum has been paid in full, food at the event will be plentiful and now the money raised will go toward providing Christmas gifts for those who live at the center.
"These are things people would normally get to do, but to these individuals it means the world," Ms. Capps said. "We are their family. That's how much we mean to each other."
RHA Howell Care Center Bear Creek serves nearly 125 intellectually disabled individuals who require around the clock assistance.
"They come from all walks of life, and they didn't choose this life for themselves," Ms. Capps said.
Individuals at the center are only provided $30 per month to live off of by Medicare, meaning the center has to cover every other living expense.
"Caring for people with intellectual disabilities humanizes us," Ms. Capps wrote in her Facebook status. "It teaches us to love ourselves the way Christ loves us."
Cooking for the fundraiser on Friday will begin at 8 a.m., and plates will be served around noon, with some being delivered by 10:30 a.m.