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Lending a helping HEART
Register photo/JASON WERLING Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel hugs Natalie (Gentry) Karr after Tressel arrived for a BBQ benefit for Natalie's brother Tyson Sunday afternoon at the Amvets pavilion in Perkins Township. Ellen Tressel is pictured to the right.
By DAN ANGELO
danangelo@sanduskyregister.com
PERKINS TWP. - A group of Briar Middle School teachers hoped a chicken barbecue and raffle would be the right gesture help friend and colleague, Bob Gentry, deal with a football injury to his son.
They've been overwhelmed by the response.
"I think this says we live in a great community," said Joanna Lowther, surveying a sold-out chicken barbecue fund-raiser Sunday at the American Legion Pavilion. "The support of the community has been awesome. I just sent out e-mails to all the (Perkins school) buildings and it went from there.
"And not just the teachers. Our custodians were here helping us set up this morning."
Lowther is on the seventh-grade team at Briar Middle School which got the project started to support Gentry. Gentry's son, Tyson, suffered a neck injury during an Ohio State spring football practice, and the fundraiser was to help the family in their long-term care of their son.
"We didn't say we wanted to raise $10,000 or $20,0000, we just wanted to raise as much as possible," said Amy Didion, who was spearheading the raffle effort. "Heck, we had kids from the Huron football team show up and we had to turn them away (for dinner), but they still bought raffle tickets.
"That just shows how classy they are and how great the SBC (Sandusky Bay Conference) can be."
Help also came in the form of 1,400 cookies baked by the Furry Primary School staff, the high school teaching staff donated more than 1,500 cans of soda and more than 20 members of the Perkins football team came to help serve.
The dinner portion of the fund-raiser was sold out Friday afternoon after the group increased its initial estimate of needed dinners to Grandma's Backyard BBQ of Port Clinton from 800 to 1,000 to 1,250.
"Helping out is what we're here for," Huron player Andrew Fawcett said. "We're here to support him, and we tried to bring as many guys as we could."
The 24 members of the Huron football team were able to slip in and out, but 20 members of the Ohio State football team, along with coach Jim Tressel and 15 members of his coaching staff and their wives, were special guests.
"This was a no-brainer," said Bob Tucker, a Sandusky graduate who is the director of football operations for Tressel at Ohio State. "What we did was we wanted to get a bus so we wouldn't have a lot of kids driving up here."
It was also an easy decision for the players who attended.
"The coaches put up a sign-up list in the weight room which said sign up if you can make it," Ohio State quarterback Justin Zwick said. "The first day I saw it, I signed up."
"We came to support Tyson," Ohio State offensive lineman Doug Datish said. "He's our teammate and we know what happened to him could happen to any one of us, so we're here to support him."
Tyson Gentry, a 20-year-old sophomore at Ohio State, was hurt while playing receiver during a spring practice session. He has had two surgeries and has been moved to the rehabilitation center at Dodd Hall.
"I think the community response is also a tribute to the Gentry family and how well they are thought of," Lowther said. "People at National City Bank contacted us to sell tickets because that's where Gloria works.
"The support has been unbelievable."
Gentry's sister, Natalie Karr, attended the event.
"We're overwhelmed with the amount of love and support people have shown us," she said. "Everyone has gone above and beyond and we're very grateful for all the support and prayers for Ty.
"He's in good spirits, has a great appetite and is in great humor."
Proceeds from the dinner portion of the fundraiser will be headed to the Tyson Gentry Trust Fund, set up by Perkins athletic director Mike Roth with the help of Duane Galloway and Associates, and National City Bank.
But the effort will continue through the raffle.
The teachers raffled off autographed footballs from Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and star linebacker A.J. Hawk on Sunday. But that's only the beginning, as the group has a list of 53 items to raffle off which continues to grow.
Items include autographed memorabilia from Tressel and other Ohio State players along with a mini-basketball backboard signed by Cavalier star LeBron James, a mini-basketball signed by teammate Larry Hughes, Cavs tickets and four club seats to an Indians game.
The raffle will be at 7 p.m. June 30 at Manny's and costs $1 for each ticket or six for $5. Winners do not need to be present to win, and tickets are available at Manny's, Briar Middle School and the Perkins Athletic Office.
"People have just been donating things like crazy," Lowther said. "Even the (Erie County Ohio State) alumni band called and asked me if they could come and play."
