Right now I am crying- not a sad moment, but one of those moments where your heart is so touched by the good that is in this world, you can’t help but cry. As if I were watching It’s A Wonderful Life or a Hallmark commercial, my little heart is verklempt. I just received a visit from our friend Rickshaw Willie. He came in to talk about some great ideas he has for Akron (sorry, can’t share them yet!) and then told me about an amazing thing that he did…
Until 20 minutes ago, I had never heard of Kory Wiita, a football player for Highland High School. A week and a half ago, Kory was severely injured in a game- 3 fractured vertebrae by simply playing a game that he loved. Kory has been at Akron Children’s Hospital since the injury, much of the time he has had to be supported by a breathing tube. Until last week, Rickshaw Willie had never heard of Kory Wiita. When the Akron Beacon Journal ran a couple of stories last week about what happened to Kory, Willie’s heartstrings were pulled. He contacted Kory’s family and offered to donate his pedicab sales for Saturday night to the family- to help with hospital bills, transportation, food, whatever. So, Saturday night, Willie did his regular route up and down Main St, with a sign stating his mission for the night- to raise money for Kory Wiita. Thanks to pedicab riders and random bar patrons who donated change out of their pockets, Willie raised $317.25 for Kory.
These are tough times, and the pedicab business gets more exercise than it does revenue, so for Willie to donate ALL of his sales for that night, is simply AMAZING. While telling me about it, he kept saying “I don’t want to talk about it, because I start to cry”. Being my mother’s daughter, I already had tears and mascara running down my cheek. Willie is a hero. Like one of my heroes Anne Frank once said, “People really are good at heart”, and that is Rickshaw Willie.
To help out Kory Wiita and his family, please visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/korywiita. To support a local hero & his business, visit Rickshaw Willie’s website, http://rickshawwillie.com. Willie’s hope is that someday Kory will pedal the pedicab out onto the football field. I’d really like to see that too.