Published July 02, 2009 03:21 pm - Family members poured out their hearts this weekend to save the heart of a young boy.
Loved ones held a bazaar on Saturday and Sunday to raise money to help save the life of 4-year-old Kyle Bennett.
“Everything clicked in place and we had a great sale,” said his mother, Crystal Bennett, 36.
Community opens heart to mend sick 4-year-old’s heart
First surgery for Kyle Bennett set for Aug. 31
Family members poured out their hearts this weekend to save the heart of a young boy.
Loved ones held a bazaar on Saturday and Sunday to raise money to help save the life of 4-year-old Kyle Bennett.
“Everything clicked in place and we had a great sale,” said his mother, Crystal Bennett, 36.
The outdoor bazaar was held at the Knights of Columbus, which donated its Pine Township facility to the cause.
“If it wasn’t for the Knights, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Donnie Null, Kyle’s grandma, of Grove City.
She and other family camped out in a tent for two nights to keep watch over the sale items.
Rev. Mark Hoffman, pastor of Church of the Beloved Disciple, left the Knights facility open for the family to have restrooms to use during the night.
The Catholic organizations “couldn’t have been nicer to us,” Null said.
The Knights’ building was being renovated or the family could have used it for the sale, “but I don’t think it would have been big enough,” she added.
Numerous individuals and businesses donated items for the bazaar. Shoppers could buy all types of things, like books, jewelry, furniture, appliances, toys, bikes, clothes and baby items. There was a Chinese auction and grab-bag items.
“There was probably a few hundred people that went through,” Mrs. Bennett said. The weather was perfect, without rain until “the last day cleaning up,” she added.
Mrs. Bennett deposited just over $4,700 from the sale into an account an Northwest Savings Bank in her son’s name.
At birth, Kyle was diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia, a severe heart defect that makes it difficult for him to create or pump oxygenated blood.
Within an hour of being born, he was air-lifted to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he spent the first three weeks of his life being tested and stabilized.
Since, he’s had four open-heart surgeries and seven heart catheterizations involving ballooning and cutting his arteries. Recently, Kyle had surgery for a pacemaker to keep his abnormal heart rhythms under control.