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Bake sale and raffle to benefit baby
by Suzanne Sukhram
Robin Bradfield, a cashier at M&R Mart, doesn’t want to shop the sales during the Route 11 Yard Crawl this weekend, but she loves raising money for Baby Kaylee.
“I decided since I wasn’t going to go out in that mess, it would be a perfect day to do something like this. We could take the opportunity of having so many people on Route 11,” she said.
Kaylee Morris was born with Otahara Syndrome, a neurological disorder that affects newborns. She has frequent, severe seizures that sometimes lasted several minutes.
Ten months ago, half of Kaylee’s brain was removed in an effort to stop the seizures.
Last month, she was diagnosed with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and spent two weeks in the hospital.
Her mother and father, who are from Woodstock, spend most of their money traveling back and forth to hospitals, and on Kaylee’s medical bills.
Employees at the M&R Mart in Woodstock will hold a bake sale and raffle on Aug. 13 to raise funds for little Kaylee Morris’s medical needs, utilizing the traffic from the Route 11 Yard Crawl from Strasburg to New Market.
The benefit bake sale and raffle is the idea of Bradfield, who says Kaylee and her family are like family to her and the staff at the store.
“I asked the girls in the store, and the more we thought about it is the better it sounded.”
“Kaylee is very dear to our hearts,” said Bradfield. “They’ve been good customers, and we’re just trying to give back to them. Obviously, the town is trying to help too.”
Bradfield said she called on practically every business in Woodstock and almost every one is offering a prize or giving baked goods for the sale.
“We’ve been wanting to do something for Kaylee for a while now and just haven’t had the opportunity,” said Bradfield. “Now we do.”
Locals are contributing rolls, donuts and brownies, Bradfield said, and prizes for the raffle include oil changes, Longaberger baskets, movie tickets and roller rink passes.
Companies in Mt. Jackson and Strasburg have pledged raffle prizes.
Raffle tickets will be available at the store for $1 each or six for $5.
So far, M&R Mart employees have raised $2,075 for Kaylee with a donation jar at the cash register.
“We’d like to thank the public and the businesses for their help and support,” Bradfield stated.
Kaylee’s grandmother, Lou MacLeod, said it touches her heart that people in the community have been so supportive of Kaylee and the family.
“I think people got hearts of gold,” she said. “It’s encouraging to see the community get behind someone like that.”
Kaylee, who will be 17 months old on Aug. 17, is getting better, MacLeod says.
However, she still has days when she doesn’t do very well.
“It’s just day by day. She goes good for a while, and then she’ll throw up. But it’s getting better.”
She said the neurosurgeon was surprised at how well Kaylee interacted with him at her last visit.
“She’s a trooper, she really is.”
She noted that Kaylee will need special splints for her left hand and foot. The splints will help her foot to turn outward and keep her thumb up.
“It’s going to be a continuous thing throughout her lifetime. They have to continually be changed because she’s growing.”
The splints will not be covered by insurance, said MacLeod, so it’s a relief to know that there will be some money there to take care of these and other medical needs. “It’s nice, it takes the burden off,” MacLeod said.
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