Post by Todd B on Mar 22, 2007 12:47:35 GMT -5
Hey Ida-ites! Check this out and put it on your calendars!
Dinner to aid family of injured student
Article published Mar 22, 2007
www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/NEWS01/103220045
IDA - A spaghetti dinner will be held Saturday at St. Joseph Catholic Church to benefit Tim Berta, a Bluffton University student who was severely injured in a bus crash March 2 in Atlanta, Ga., and whose condition continues to improve.
The dinner will be served from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the parish hall, Riggs and Van Aiken Sts. There is no admission fee, but donations will be accepted. The meal will consist of pasta and sauce, rolls, salad, dessert, soft-serve ice cream and refreshments.
Ida Townhsip Supervisor Ron Iott is cooking the meal with Paul and Angie Gerweck and Debbie McCain. Much of the food is being donated and Ida High School students and members of several athletic teams at the school will help serve and clean up.
Donations also will be accepted for the family during the church's weekly fish fry Friday night, Mr. Iott said.
The Berta family are members of the church.
Mr. Berta, 22, was still in critical, but stable, condition Tuesday at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. His parents, Rob and Karen Berta of Ida, are with him and call in daily to update his health with Mr. Berta's aunt, Janice Martinson.
"He's doing wonderful," Mrs. Martinson said Tuesday. "He can't talk, but his vitals are good and they're getting more responses from him every day. Today he wiggled his toes."
The hospital's medical staff is trying to wean him off a respirator he has been on since the accident. He has breathed on his own for two hours a day the past couple of days.
"His chest muscles are too weak, so they're trying to strengthen him until he can do it on his own," his aunt said.
She said the family has been overwhelmed by the community's outpouring of support and generosity.
"We're so thankful for their prayers," she said.