Coming together: Community unites to help paralyzed football player

OAKLEY, Summit County — From the tiny mountain town of Oakley, the word is spreading: People are building a house for a local boy who was hurt on the football field, and the only two things they don't want for their efforts are money and recognition.

Neighbors showed up yesterday at 6:30 in the morning and braved freezing temperatures to pull back insulation blankets and prepare the job site for the skilled workers.

About 40 teammates, classmates and people from the community responded when the call went out last week seeking help to clean up the job site.

Friday, four different plumbing contractors — all business rivals — worked side by side to plumb the house.

Excavators, framers, carpenters, concrete laborers, architects and many more have shown up daily to donate their labor, using materials provided by supply companies.

"It's pretty heartwarming," says longtime contractor Steve Neff.

The other day a man came by who was walking his dog. "What can I do to help?" he asked.

"The response has been unbelievable," says Kent Woolstenhulme, another of the workers and a cousin to the injured boy's mother. "Almost everyone you talk to wants to help."

The idea began not long after Porter Hancock was injured while making a tackle for the South Summit High football team on Oct. 7. He is paralyzed from mid-chest down. There is reason to hope that he will regain the use of his lower limbs, but at the very least he faces a long road to recovery.

Family members and neighbors realized the Hancocks' home would not be suitable for a kid in a wheelchair, with its narrow doorways and halls and its split entry and steep stairs. The phone calls began. This is a community of contractors, men who make a living in construction. They rallied to help.

About two weeks ago, they began building a house on property owned by Hancock's grandfather. They plan to have the new house ready by the time Porter leaves the hospital, which is scheduled for mid-December.

"It's what life's all about, helping people in need," says carpenter Ray Peterson.

The foundation is complete. The walls and the headers for the windows and doors are being pre-built in a shop. If all goes according to schedule, workers will raise the exterior walls on the foundation Wednesday, build the interior walls on Thursday, the trusses on Friday and the roof on Friday or Saturday.