Fundraiser to be held Sunday for Donna Campbell

By Pete Fontaine
Posted 11/25/15

Back on Jan. 24 of this year, Donna and Bill Campbell’s lives changed forever.

“I had just got the morning paper,” Bill Campbell, a baseball icon in Rhode Island and pitching coach at Bishop …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Fundraiser to be held Sunday for Donna Campbell

Posted

Back on Jan. 24 of this year, Donna and Bill Campbell’s lives changed forever.

“I had just got the morning paper,” Bill Campbell, a baseball icon in Rhode Island and pitching coach at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, recalled. “I heard a noise … what the heck was that?”

Seconds later, Campbell looked and saw his wife lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs to his basement.

“I don’t have any feeling in my legs!” Donna Campbell told her beloved husband who later learned his wife broke her neck during the fall and severed her spinal cord, thus leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

From there, the Campbell’s lives have been an ongoing nightmare. First, there was a 73-day stay in the hospital that was followed by a 100-day stay at the West View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Warwick.

“And it seems like there’s no end in sight,” Mike Benedetto, a former teacher at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick and Campbell’s long-time friend, was saying earlier this week. “That’s why the (BHS) baseball family is asking for your help!”

This Sunday – Nov. 29 – in fact, the Bishop Hendricken High baseball family and a host of other caring people will hold what Benedetto hopes will be “the biggest fundraiser ever in Rhode Island.”

From 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, the Hawks’ heralded baseball family will hold a benefit pasta dinner – complete with many raffles and a host of other prizes – that will help the Campbells with ever-mounting medical expenses since Donna became paralyzed back on Jan. 24.

“Family and friends are coming together to help support Donna meet her medical needs,” Ed Holloway, Bishop Hendricken’s highly-respected head baseball coach, offered. “Please, come out and support this very, very important cause.”

Sunday’s dinner – which Holloway and Benedetto said “is open to everyone in Rhode Island” – will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 475 Sandy Lane in Warwick. Tickets are $25 per person and may be purchased – in advance – by calling Jan O’Donnell in Hendricken President John Jackson’s office at (401) 739-3450.

The Friends of Donna Campbell are also accepting donations – monetary and gift cards – for Sunday’s pasta dinner benefit. Tickets may also be purchased at the door Sunday.

“This is an absolutely sad situation,” Benedetto emphasized. “One minute Donna’s fine and the next minute she’s paralyzed for the rest of her life. Needless to say, the Campbell’s lives have changed forever.”

Yet, Donna Campbell – Bill said earlier this week – “is a fighter and will be at the dinner Sunday.”

She’s also dealing with a serious wound that Bill Campbell said “is healing but will still take more time and this really adds to what has become a tough, tough grind.”

So, instead of giving pitching lessons at the Rhode Island Baseball Institute in Warwick and lending his baseball pitching expertise to pitchers at Bishop Hendricken, Bill Campbell has stopped any and all activities except staying at home and taking care of his wonderful wife Donna.

Meanwhile, the medical bills continue to mount for necessary services such as a motorized wheelchair, on-going therapy, visits from CNAs and visiting nurses.

“It’s an endless list,” Bill Campbell was saying, his voice cracking with emotion. “It seems like it will never end, but my wife’s a fighter and we’ll get through it!”

The Campbells, as well as people like Bill’s brother Al Campbell – a one-time teacher-coach and running great – along with Benedetto, Holloway and the Hawks’ entire baseball family are hoping that someday Donna Campbell will have a handicapped van to get to doctor’s visits, or perhaps even enjoy things that prior to Jan. 24 were routine but now seem a lifetime away.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here