Going Once, Going Twice, Sold: Betting, Baking, and Buying for Costly Care

A sorority team building accident has left a St. Joseph woman paralyzed and now 20-year-old Candice Minear`s family and church members are jumping into action to help. They are betting, buying and baking to help the minears afford medical expenses that can cost up to $100,000. You name it coffee pots, knife sets, homemade handbags. Then there`s gift certificates and grab bags from tanning salons and restaurants. The list of local and national business that donated goods and services goes on and on. It`s all here and going fast. Every item donated to help cover the costly care of a quadrapelegic. Candice shattered her vertebrae when she landed on her head during a sorority team building exercise. Her father Mike Minear said, "We`ve pretty much gone through every nickel we had going out their to visit her and we ran out of paid leave so we weren`t drawing a paycheck." Those trips to vist their daughter in a Colorado hospital may soon be over. Candice had her fourth surgery and her parents say it went well. Minear said, "The doctors were going to go in and plug a bone on her vertebrae but the bone had grown back together on it`s own. We weren`t expecting that so it was a little bit of a miracle. The family is also happy to report that Candice no longer has to wear her neck brace. That good news is followed by an outpouring of support from Wyatt Park Christian Church members. They remolded the Minears home to make it handicap accessable. and hosted a benefit auction complete with chili dinner and silent auction. All that support leaves Mike speechless. Minear said, "It really warms your heart. It`s hard to describe because they`ve just done so much for us. We never could have done it on our own." The Minears also aren`t alone when it comes to excitement surrounding Candice`s homecoming and they`re are not alone. Fellow church member Bill Walker helped put the benefit togther. Walker said the benefit raised nearly seven thousand dollars. He said, "We`re all anxious to get her home and surround her with love, care, and attention." Doctors say Candice should be home in about three weeks.