How I wish those two words would be able to express how I feel about the people of our community. There’s so much support, love and kindness in our community. In a world that seems so bleak at times, such a wonderful, positive thing can emerge from it, and knowing first hand how hard times are tough.

I couldn’t believe the overwhelming support and outcome and generous donations for my benefit. It’s such an overwhelming feeling. I wish I could thank each and every person, but with so much kindness throughout our wonderful town, I would go on forever. But I do want to say thank you to all our local businesses for their generously donated raffle items. A special thanks for those who donated anonymously.

Thanks also to those who donated monetary gifts to my bank account or have given to my family and friends. I also want to say thanks for all the cooked food that was brought to the house. All of it was just wonderful and delicious. We are very grateful.

I want to say a special thanks to all the County employees who have more than generously donated their vacation time to me. It has helped so much to keep my paycheck and insurance, and gives me a peace of mind so I can concentrate on getting well. You all have so much kindness in you.

An amazing thank you to Dave Gerken for the wonderful fly-over the benefit. I sure hope everyone was able to witness this spectacular show. He did flips and with smoke drew the breast cancer ribbon. It was awesome.

I can’t put into words for the benefit committee how I feel about each and every one of you. I love and cherish all of them. I am honored to say they are more like family than friends, so a very special thank you goes out to this group of wonderful, hard working folks: Tobey, Tracy, and Lindsey Guenthart; Jim and Isabelle Tabor, Danny and Kim Ellis, Sonny and Annette Palmer, Bill and Mary Hodson, Troy and Pam Guenthart, Chris and Chrystal Phillips, Linda Brower, Monique Beaudoin, Debbie Lester, Jim Pearce, Tim and Jill Mankins, and thanks to Steve Allison.

Just one more thing -- for all the women in our community and their family, friends, daughters, nieces -- don’t wait until its too late. Go get your mammograms and ultrasounds. It takes only a few moments out of your life to save your life.

Kathleen Guenthart and Family