07/05/2007

Response to article makes a difference

By Tom Carr
Record-Eagle staff writer
tcarr@
record-eagle.com

Read Tom's past columns here

I became a feature writer and news reporter because I want my stories to make a difference.

I believe most of the people I work with have had the same desire. It's not always easy to know if that is happening. Yet every now and then a story brings out the best in someone who reads it.

That was the case when my colleague, Marta Hepler Drahos, and I wrote a package of stories on foreclosures which ran Sunday, May 27. The sad news was that people are facing home foreclosures in record numbers.

The good news came, however, after Keith McCardel read the stories and a small portion of one stuck with him.

The story mentioned that two of Dawn Hentschel's children would not be able to participate in baseball and driver's training after the family negotiated a payment plan with a lender to avoid foreclosure.

Keith owns McCardel Culligan, and he felt bad for the teens having to do without those things.

He told Cyndi Csapo of the Record-Eagle advertising sales staff that he wanted to help.

"You feel sorry for these people,” he said. "You feel like you'd like to help them.”

It particularly hit home because Keith has a daughter going through driver's training who is "counting the days until she can get her license.”

I guess you could say playing organized sports and learning to drive are not necessary for survival. Yet they are things that help kids grow.

And it's not like they wanted cell phones with text messaging and built-in cameras, or a $200 pair of trendy athletic shoes.

So, with our help, McCardel contacted the family and agreed to pay for the baseball and the driving classes. Dawn's children were thrilled.

"It was a blessing,” she said.

Her son has been playing baseball and her daughter is scheduled to start driving classes next week.

As a parent and as someone who co-manages a household budget, I know my wife and I can make mistakes or simply be victim to the whims of outside forces.

Yet the last thing we want is for our children to suffer from it, so I was touched by Keith's gesture as well.

I won't for a minute try to take credit for any of the happy outcome. It was 100 percent the result of Keith McCardel's generosity and he never asked to have it publicized.

For my part, it doesn't feel too bad to know that the stories we wrote brought together someone with a need and someone with a desire, and the means, to help.

ReachTom Carr at tcarr@record-eagle.com.