From Elyria, Ohio, chronicleonline. To read original, click here.
Benefit Saturday for paralyzed Penfield native hurt in hammock accident
PENFIELD TWP. — Jeremy Mohr and Brenda Gerber’s sons grew up together, spending lots of time each summer on Kelleys Island at Camp Patmos, a Christian family and children’s camp.
“The boys went there every year since they were babies,” Gerber said. “They basically grew up together.”
They also attended Midview Baptist Church together, where a benefit music program for Mohr will be 7 p.m. Saturday in the chapel of the First Baptist Christian School, 11400 LaGrange Road, Elyria.
The concert is free to everyone, and an offering will be taken up for Mohr, a Penfield Township native, and his family. “We don’t want anyone to feel obligated,” Gerber said. “We wanted to get the news out on Jeremy.”
Mohr suffered a spinal cord injury Sept. 17 when he was involved in a freak accident when one of the trees holding a hammock in which Mohr and Mallori Kastner, 18, a Grace College freshman, were sitting snapped and toppled onto the two students.
Kastner was killed immediately, and Mohr was paralyzed from the neck down, according to reports from the Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office.
The accident happened on the shoreline of Winona Lake, close to the campus of Grace College, a private Christian school near Fort Wayne, Ind.
Ryan Gerber, 21, is Mohr’s roommate and fellow senior at Grace College. Gerber’s brother, Scott, is another lifelong friend of Mohr’s.
Brenda Gerber said Mohr’s parents, Terry and Marcia Mohr ,had moved to Iowa six months ago, but returned to be by their son’s side at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind.
“(Monday) he was supposed to get a tracheotomy tube put in,” Gerber said. “The big thing is that they’re hoping at some point his diaphragm will start working again so they can get him off a ventilator.”
The coming weeks will be important ones in Mohr’s treatment and recovery.
“They’re still talking at this point about paralysis from the neck down, but there have been some encouraging signs,” Gerber said. “The family has been told that in the next three to four weeks they’ll see if any feeling comes back into his limbs.”
Gerber spoke with Mohr’s mother Monday.
“She said, ‘How do we get through this if God has no path for us to walk?’ And we know there is one,” Brenda Gerber said.
The program will feature music by people including Mohr’s buddies, all of whom played in church bands together growing up.
“One is in Columbus now,” Barbara Gerber said. “They’ve all grown up and are in different places. Some are out-of-state, but they’re all coming back for this. They stayed such good friends even as they’ve all gone off to college and onto their own lives.”
The evening will include testimonials, updates on Jeremy Mohr, and friends and others sharing memories and experiences of times spent with the young man.
Help has come from many quarters, including churches in the Fort Wayne area that have delivered meals to the Ronald McDonald House where Mohr’s parents, and two older sisters, Faith and Joy, have stayed.
“There have been over 12,000 hits on his (Mohr’s) page at caringbridge. org,” Brenda Gerber said. “It’s amazing how many people touched their lives in a week’s time.”
Anyone unable to attend the concert can check it out online at www.helpJD.com.