Rainbow of Hope touching the lives of area families
Sue Thomas and her seeing eye dog recently spoke at Chestnut Ridge Elementary. Thomas, who is deaf, became an unlikely hero for the FBI, where she used her lip-reading skills to take down some of the world’s most notorious bad guys. Thomas will share her story during the annual Rainbow of Hope Auction.
The 32nd annual Benefit Auction for the Rainbow of Hope Foundation will take place at the Mt. Hope Auction Barn on Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28.
This annual event has become synonymous with aiding area families who have children who are suffering from medical conditions that have put a hardship on the family in terms of medical expenses.
Last year’s event raised more than $500,000, and each year over the past three decades, Rainbow of Hope has impacted area families with its abundance of giving, an abundance that comes directly from a caring community that never seems to tire of giving.
“This community has been incredible,” Rainbow of Hope board member Al Yoder said. “The giving attitude of the people here is like no other. Each year they show up and support this foundation, and we want to be good stewards with their gifts and help as many families as possible who are struggling with medical bills.”
Yoder said just recently Rainbow of Hope provided close to $80,000 to a family that was financially strapped due to a medical condition of their child.
Yoder said the key to Rainbow of Hope is that while the funds are always used for a child’s medical needs, the money presented to each family is designed to bring comfort to the entire family because the parents are the ones burdened financially.
As always the two-day event will begin Friday. This year the entirety of the weekend’s festivities, aside from the volleyball tournament, will take place inside the new air-conditioned facility.
“We had so many wonderful comments about this being in the air-conditioning,” Yoder said.
Rainbow’s committee decided to move both auctions into the large facility, where bidders can attend both auctions with ease. There also will be plenty of food throughout the day on Saturday.
On Friday special guest speaker Sue Thomas will speak about her days with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Thomas, who is deaf, is a former FBI agent who was recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for her ability to read lips. She was at Chestnut Ridge Elementary recently to share her life journey, which included being labeled an outcast and a loser, being called dumb, snickered at, told she was useless and then discovering a true gift through the FBI.
After years of being trod upon, verbally abused and shunned by classmates, Thomas was brought into the FBI to perform her very specialized gift of reading lips, where she managed to help apprehend some of the world’s most notorious bad guys.
Her inspirational story of hope and faith began in her elementary-age years.
“In school nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. I was different. I was weird. I hated my life,” Thomas said.
That all changed when the FBI came courting her as she grew into adulthood. They saw in her a secret weapon, a weapon which could hear words being spoken privately by heinous criminals out in the world the “hearing” FBI agents couldn’t hear.
Friday’s activities will start at 4 p.m. and will include Thomas, the volleyball tournament, and a dinner of barbecued chicken and pulled pork. In addition there will be an amateur auctioneer contest with the tools and toys auction beginning at 5 p.m.
“That Friday evening event has really become popular,” Yoder said.
Saturday will begin promptly at 6 a.m. with a well-balanced breakfast with all of the fixings, the auction kicking off at 8:30 a.m.
The auction will feature a large selection of quality locally made oak, cherry and other wood furniture; approximately 75 quilts; livestock, heifers, horses and ponies; buggies; and lawn furniture. There also will be a silent auction throughout the day and a bake sale.
The furniture auction will include a roll top desk, rustic cherry table with six chairs, barrel coffee table, bedroom sets, dining room tables and chairs, hutches, whiskey barrel sofa, coffee and end tables, sliding-door book case, side chair, rustic table with six leather chairs, shaker table with six chairs, Weaver playset with classic tower, white oak quarter-sawn coffee table with a steel base, a mission-style oak table with six chairs, and many other quality pieces of locally made hardwood furniture.
At 9 a.m. the miscellaneous auction will begin with smaller items like garden tools. At noon on Saturday the auction highlight will be the sale of a 40-by-60-foot building. There also will be a semi-load of KD 4-by-4 quarter-sawn white oak and other big-ticket items.
At 10 a.m. on Saturday, the livestock auction will begin, including dairy heifers, several driving horses, a 1,200-pound beef steer, a 1,400-pound grass-fed Holstein steer, a number of heifers certified organic, and all types of breeding stock of sheep.
Following that will be buggies and some various large-ticket items, like an open buggy, an open surrey, a mini surrey, a Dan church top buggy, a top buggy, a two-seater open buggy Studabaker Jr. wagon, a D-M hunting blind, a vinyl swing set, and many other items.
At around 1:30 p.m., the power equipment, lawn furniture and more will be up for grabs.
“This is a special time for people to support our area families in need,” Yoder said. “It can get overwhelming for families who are not used to facing these kinds of hardships due to medical issues. What we do through Rainbow is such a blessing because it is all about helping others, and nobody takes one dime. All of the funds we raise go directly to our families. It is a celebration of people supporting those in need. We are so blessed to have a community which supports people like we do around here. The people who participated may never know exactly how many lives they have touched through their giving.”
To send donations to Rainbow of Hope, write to Rainbow of Hope Foundation, P.O. Box 8, Mt. Hope, OH 44660.