A good-news story about good folks
July 9, 2009 by Scott Sandsberry
YAKIMA, Wash. — Many of you who were following Eric Bruntjen’s arduous 2,780-mile mountain bike in the Tour Divide race may remember the Herald-Republic story on the good folks at Northwest Farm Credit Services’ Valley offices, who decided to step up to support Eric’s efforts to raise money towards the purchase of an all-terrain wheelchair for Selah’s Evan Mettie, an injured Iraq war veteran.
Just to catch you up if you haven’t: Michael Gibbons, who works for NFCS’ Yakima office, read in the Herald-Republic about what Bruntjen was doing. Gibbons didn’t know Bruntjen and didn’t know Evan Mettie, but has a special place in his heart for our country’s veterans; he himself has a son on his third tour in Iraq. So he sent an e-mail around to the people at NFCS’ offices in the Valley suggesting that they all donate to Eric’s cause.
Almost all of them did.
And not only did the local NFCS employees step up in a big way, combining to donate more than $1,500, the NFCS corporate office folks in Spokane said they would match whatever the employees generated.
On Thursday, Gibbons was working with Bruntjen to arrange a time when NFCS could present a check (or checks) exceeding $3,000 toward Evan Mettie’s wheelchair.
With so much bad news out there, that — a group of people reaching deeply into their own pockets to support a truly worthy cause — is the kind of good news that warms the heart.
So next time you run into somebody from Northwest Farm Credit Services, I hope that’s one of the first things that comes into your mind: “Hey, aren’t you the good folks who …?”
– Scott Sandsberry
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