Bracelets benefitting family on sale at Hibriten
The “Hope for Pope”tiffany and co bracelets are circulating throughout the county, and proceeds from the sale of the rubber wrist pieces will benefit Ashlyn Pope, a Hibriten High School student critically injured in a vehicle crash with an impaired driver nearly three weeks ago, and her family.
The bracelets are being sold by members of the Hibriten Beta Club and in the school’s office from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. They cost $2, and proceeds will be given to the Pope family to help offset expenses accrued from their stay in Charlotte while Ashlyn is a patient at Carolinas Medical Center.
Pope suffered extensive injuries in an Oct. 22 head-on collision in N.C. 18 near Hollow Springs Road and has been at CMC since that time. She has had multiple surgeries to repair numerous fractures, including last week on her wrist and ankle.
Her mother Paula said she had been resting and had been taken off the ventilator, breathing on her own for the first time since being flown to the trauma center the night of the horrendous crash that also injured her father David.
The idea of selling the bracelets to support the family came from Hibriten sophomore Kali Harwood. She approached her Beta Club advisor Wendy Beard with the concept, and that jump-started the fundraiser that has been embraced by the school.
“She came to me, talked about it and showed me a drawing,” Beard said. “We thought it cufflinks was a wonderful idea. Kali has had the support of her parents and the school with this project.”
Harwood said she didn’t know Pope well but had been around her some because her step-sister Hannah Crowe played softball with Pope.
“She was always so happy and had a great spirit,” Harwood said of Pope. “She’s just a good role model. Every time I’ve been around her she’s just had a great attitude.”
The bracelets, reminiscent of the “LiveStrong” bracelets made popular by cyclist Lance Armstrong, are lime green — Ashlyn Pope’s favorite color — and were ordered for the school by Kelley’s Sports and Awards. Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Paula Pope’s employer, helped with the expense of the bracelets to make the fundraiser possible.
Grey Scheer, BREMCO’s director of community relations, said the cooperative paid the production costs so the school would not have any costs involved with the project.
“We wanted to do something to help out,” Scheer said. “This affects a lot of different families. There’s the bracelets Blue Ridge family with Paul, the community, then the school and softball families for Ashlyn. There are a lot of different families, if you will, who care and are involved with this. Everybody just wants to help.”
Approximately 3,000 bracelets have been circulated so far, being sold by the school’s Beta Club members and softball team members to people in churches, at schools and throughout the community as well as during lunch periods at Hibriten. Beard said that South Caldwell and West Caldwell also have contacted Hibriten expressing a desire to sell the bracelets, and some of them have been distributed at Kings Creek Elementary School, attended by Pope, to sell.
“It’s been amazing,” Beard said of the response shown for the project. “People think it’s tough to teach teenagers. I’ve been doing it for 18 years, and so many people ask me how I can deal with them. They often get a bad reputation, but I’m proud of these kids for what they are doing. We have some wonderful students. They have shown so much support and compassion for Ashlyn, which I think is tremendous. It’s just wonderful for me to be among these kids.”
Harwood said she just felt something needed to be done to show support for Ashlyn and her family in their time of need.
“I saw how much pain this was causing everyone in the community, the school and her family,” Harwood said. “I just wanted to do something to help and thought this would be a good way to honor her. I’m amazed at how well the community has come together for her.”
Ashlyn Pope, a standout softball player for the Panthers, still has a long road ahead of her to recover from her rings numerous injuries, but Hibriten softball coach Jim Blanton said she is a fighter.
“She’s a great softball player but an even better person, a very strong person,” Blanton said of Ashlyn. “When she stepped on this campus, it turned the softball program for us. She’s nice and sweet, and I’ve never heard her say anything bad to anyone. Besides being a great softball player, she’s just a super, super kid.”
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