Post by Todd B on Mar 18, 2007 23:24:48 GMT -5
Ida pulls together to help Bluffton student
www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/NEWS17/703170347
By BENJAMIN ALEXANDER-BLOCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
IDA, Mich. - The tight-knit township of Ida is doing what small communities do best - pulling together and embracing its own during a time of need.
Tim Berta, 22, is the only member of the Bluffton University baseball team still hospitalized after a charter bus accident earlier this month in Atlanta.
His father Rob said he no longer knows how to thank the 5,000 residents back home, 18 miles north of Toledo, for all they've done.
"Thank you just doesn't say it anymore. It's not enough. The word has just become trite," he said during a telephone conversation from the hospital in Atlanta where his son is being treated.
"I never dreamed that we would go through something like this. But now we are going through, getting through it with Tim."
Four of the university's baseball players, the bus driver, and the driver's wife were killed when the bus plunged off an overpass March 2 in Atlanta and crashed onto I-75. The team was traveling to Florida for its annual spring training trip. A fifth player, Zach Arend, died March 9.
Next Saturday, Ida residents will hold a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser for Tim, to help support his parents, who have taken leaves of absence from work to be with him. It will be from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the family's church - St. Joseph Catholic Church, 8295 Van Aiken St.
"There will not be any set price. We will just be asking people to give what they can," Tim's aunt, Janice Martinson said.
Applebee's in Dundee will hold a fund-raiser from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. March 28. Flyers for the Applebee's fund-raiser are being distributed at area businesses. People who bring the flyer to the restaurant will have 10 percent of their bill donated to the Berta family.
There also is a Tim Berta Family Fund set up at Ida's Monroe Bank and Trust.
Tim's parents flew to Atlanta the day of the crash.
They are still at Grady Memorial Hospital, squeezing their son's hands, watching him respond to their voices, hoping each day for a little more movement Tim, a senior and student assistant coach, remains unconscious. He has bleeding on the brain, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, and a broken left shoulder. He had his spleen removed and brain surgery to remove a blood clot and relieve some swelling. He is heavily sedated and is using a respirator, but has made progress and is now able to breathe slightly on his own, his father said yesterday.
Tim's sisters, Trisha, 20, and Tonya, 16, have spent days at their brother's bedside, but they returned home last week.
Tonya is on the Ida High School volleyball team.
The team has taken up a collection for her brother - as have the school's teachers and churches.
And residents regularly bring meals to the Bertas' home, where Tim's aunt and grandmother are taking care of his sisters and the family's pets.
"We are so far away from home … just to know that everyone back there is helping out and that the people at home, our daughters, are being taken care … it has meant everything," Mr. Berta said.
The team's tragedy has extended the charitable spirit beyond Ida's borders.
"It has just been, it's just been overwhelming … the amount of support … the amount of prayers. … I think everyone in the United States is praying for him," Mrs. Martinson said.
"It just restores your faith in humanity," she added.
Contact Benjamin Alexander-Bloch at:
babloch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6168.
www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/NEWS17/703170347
By BENJAMIN ALEXANDER-BLOCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
IDA, Mich. - The tight-knit township of Ida is doing what small communities do best - pulling together and embracing its own during a time of need.
Tim Berta, 22, is the only member of the Bluffton University baseball team still hospitalized after a charter bus accident earlier this month in Atlanta.
His father Rob said he no longer knows how to thank the 5,000 residents back home, 18 miles north of Toledo, for all they've done.
"Thank you just doesn't say it anymore. It's not enough. The word has just become trite," he said during a telephone conversation from the hospital in Atlanta where his son is being treated.
"I never dreamed that we would go through something like this. But now we are going through, getting through it with Tim."
Four of the university's baseball players, the bus driver, and the driver's wife were killed when the bus plunged off an overpass March 2 in Atlanta and crashed onto I-75. The team was traveling to Florida for its annual spring training trip. A fifth player, Zach Arend, died March 9.
Next Saturday, Ida residents will hold a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser for Tim, to help support his parents, who have taken leaves of absence from work to be with him. It will be from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the family's church - St. Joseph Catholic Church, 8295 Van Aiken St.
"There will not be any set price. We will just be asking people to give what they can," Tim's aunt, Janice Martinson said.
Applebee's in Dundee will hold a fund-raiser from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. March 28. Flyers for the Applebee's fund-raiser are being distributed at area businesses. People who bring the flyer to the restaurant will have 10 percent of their bill donated to the Berta family.
There also is a Tim Berta Family Fund set up at Ida's Monroe Bank and Trust.
Tim's parents flew to Atlanta the day of the crash.
They are still at Grady Memorial Hospital, squeezing their son's hands, watching him respond to their voices, hoping each day for a little more movement Tim, a senior and student assistant coach, remains unconscious. He has bleeding on the brain, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, and a broken left shoulder. He had his spleen removed and brain surgery to remove a blood clot and relieve some swelling. He is heavily sedated and is using a respirator, but has made progress and is now able to breathe slightly on his own, his father said yesterday.
Tim's sisters, Trisha, 20, and Tonya, 16, have spent days at their brother's bedside, but they returned home last week.
Tonya is on the Ida High School volleyball team.
The team has taken up a collection for her brother - as have the school's teachers and churches.
And residents regularly bring meals to the Bertas' home, where Tim's aunt and grandmother are taking care of his sisters and the family's pets.
"We are so far away from home … just to know that everyone back there is helping out and that the people at home, our daughters, are being taken care … it has meant everything," Mr. Berta said.
The team's tragedy has extended the charitable spirit beyond Ida's borders.
"It has just been, it's just been overwhelming … the amount of support … the amount of prayers. … I think everyone in the United States is praying for him," Mrs. Martinson said.
"It just restores your faith in humanity," she added.
Contact Benjamin Alexander-Bloch at:
babloch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6168.