St. Paul’s Benefit Supper this Sunday

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (20th and Towle) will host its 5th annual Fall Community Benefit Supper this coming Sunday, Sept. 29.

They will be serving an Old Fashioned Roast Beef Dinner from 5-7 p.m. This year the freewill donation proceeds will go to Ali Gildersleeve for medical and equipment expenses.

Rather than going to the Richardson County Fair in 2012, Ali was admitted to the local hospital with a temperature of 104. After spending a week in our local hospital, she was transferred to UNMC in Omaha and admitted to the ICU. In the month that Ali spent in Omaha she was diagnosed with Sepsis and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and a tracheostomy was performed. She was then transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation in Lincoln.

From October 2012 through March 2013, Ali was transferred between Madonna and Bryan East several times with different medical issues. Finally on March 28, Ali was able to come back home to Falls City. Since that time she has been admitted to our local hospital for a brief stay and in August took a helicopter (life flight) ride back to Bryan East in Lincoln. Ali is home at this time.

Ali’s family made the following statement: “This last year has been a roller coaster ride that we can’t seem to get off of. There have been so many ups and downs, so many tears shed. You learn that life is a very precious gift that can be gone in the blink of an eye. While at Bryan East we were taken into the “Dark Room” three times and told Ali would probably not make it through the day but guess what? Ali did make it and she is still with us! She has defeated all the odds. The pulmonology doctors said she would never get off the ventilator, but she did!  She does still have a tracheotomy but Ali is home in her own bed with her family which is the best place for her to be. We believe Ali has a Guardian Angel that watches over her. So Thank You! There is no other explanation.”