BUCKHANNON – When Buckhannon native Seth Poling asked for help, Upshur County residents, friends, family members and folks who had never even met Seth, stepped up to the plate without hesitation.
They flocked together to donate to his GoFundMe appeal to help fund the addition of an ADA-accessible first floor bedroom and bathroom to his Morgantown home.
On Friday, Nov. 2, folks will have another opportunity to help Seth and his family.
This Friday, at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church, located at 88 S. Kanawha St., family and friends are having a baked steak dinner fundraiser for Seth, who was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2017.
His mother, Mary Alice Poling, said the dinner will be from 4 to 7 p.m. and will be followed at 7 p.m. with a live auction, silent auction and cash-and-carry sale.
“The meal includes baked steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, applesauce, assorted homemade desserts and iced tea, coffee or water,” Mary Alice Poling said. “We have 300 rolls, made by Dale Hawkins of Fish Hawk Farms, and 200 rolls donated by the Bread Man. Dinners may be made to eat in or carry out and we will have a limited amount of deliveries to those in the city limits.”
She said folks wanting to-go orders or deliveries can contact the church Friday evening to make arrangements by calling 304-472-6904. Adult dinners are $10 and children’s dinners are $5, and the Polings are prepared to sell 500 dinners.
Following the dinner, auctioneer Alden Butcher will lead a live auction of items. Poling said auctioneer Butcher and Seth played ball against one another in high school, and the two remained friends, attending Fairmont State University together.
In addition, the Band of Brothers calendars will be on sale during the dinner and the auction. She said the calendar photos were taken around West Virginia by photographer and Upshur County resident Al Tucker.
Some of the items that will be included in the live auction include: a blue heron photo by Tucker, a photo by Robbie Skinner of downtown Buckhannon, a Christmas quilt made by Poling and quilted by Mary Ellen Lemons, a primitive tray, an antler bowl by Tim Woody, an afghan crocheted by Patty Cutright, a Christmas wreath made by Shirley Helmick, two tickets to Eric Church’s Double Down Tour and a gift card for Hotels.com, two tickets to the West Virginia Zip Canopy Tour in Morgantown, a round of golf for four from Snowshoe, a two-person stay at Stonewall Resort with lunch at the Thyme Bistro in Lewis County, a $200 gift card to Ralph’s Furniture and much, much more.
Items available during the silent auction include a Michael Kors purse, a Thirty-One Purse with essential oils, a Shakeology basket, a fall centerpiece, framed photos, a primitive star shelf, three-piece bear quilt set size large/queen, a fall flower arrangement by Feola’s Flowers, a gift basket from Trumpz Salon in Buckhannon and many more items.
Seth has already been overwhelmed by the support of the surrounding community, as he noted in a post last month on Facebook.
“The amount of love and support my family and I have received over the past few days has been nothing short of a miracle. I can’t begin to thank each and every one of you who took the time to share this post over 900 times, let alone those who donated and shared such loving and supportive encouragement. My wife and I are flabbergasted at the amazing response of love and support for our cause. Anyone that knows us knows that we aren’t the type of people who ask for help.”
In just five short days following the creation of a GoFundMe on Facebook for Seth Poling, $13,500 was raised to help their family address the need for an ADA-accessible first floor bedroom and bathroom in their current home. The Polings said there were astounded by how quickly the money came in and how generous people have been.
To date, the GoFundMe has raised $15,595 to help the family add on a downstairs ADA-accessible bathroom and bedroom to their Morgantown home. Donations may still be made at the GoFundMe site, www.gofundme.com/seth-poling-als.
“We are humbled by the support we have received for Seth,” Mary Alice Poling said. “Anything we have asked of folks has been given to us, and we appreciate that people have donated to our cause out of the kindness of their hearts. We are touched by everyone’s generosity.”
She said if the response to the baked steak dinner goes well, they may have another dinner in the near future. Within the next three weeks, there will be an online auction of items on which folks may bid; details of that event will be available soon.
