Charity cornhole tournament raises $2,000 for Marquand family

 

 

Marquand-Zion School raised $2,000 from a community cornhole tournament on Saturday towards the family of Whitley Morris, who was injured in a car crash in late June.

Morris, a 7-year old Marquand student, lost feeling in her legs on Highway 67 when the mid-sized SUV she was in trailed off the right side of the road into another car parked in a corner, leaving several others injured and 1 dead.

The $2,000 donations from the corn hole tournament will go directly to Morris’s family, who are paying for medical procedures and equipment to help Whitley gain mobility again.

Currently, Morris is at a St. Louis rehabilitation hospital for treatment on her legs.

“She doesn’t have any feeling from the knee down, so we’re going through physical and occupational therapy to gain more strength for the standing and walking portion, with assistance,” her mom Gretchen Morris said.

Whitley also had surgery on her stomach to remove portions of her small and large intestines, where the seat belt cut into her during the wreck.

The equipment she needs is not limited to the wheel chair, but will include a walker, ankle braces, and braces near her hips that can lock and unlock at the knee, Gretchen said. 

The Mustang, “which is like a walker with bicycle feet,” Gretchen said, is another piece of equipment, which holds her in while she learns to kick out from her quads.

The brace on her hips will lock when she needs to use a walker, and unlock when she walks by herself, until she gets tired, Gretchen said.

In two weeks, Gretchen’s cast on her right wrist will come off for good.

Marquand Teacher Crystal Stevens, who helped organize the cornhole tournament, said there were 12 players, and about 75 people in attendance during supper, where all of the food was donated. The tournament raised $2,000.

“Whitley is such a brave and strong young girl, and it’s heartwarming to see our community show up for her in such a big way,” Stevens said. “Despite being a small community, we proved once again that in times of need, we come together and go above and beyond.”

Stevens said she has been family friends with the Morris’s for years through school, and that she has a daughter who is around her age.

“We usually meet once a month for the seniors and sometimes they want to throw a second round, and sometimes we don’t leave here until 1 a.m.,” she said.

James Morris, Whitley’s dad, said his daughter’s inpatient occupational therapy should end in August, possibly even by the first day of school, on the 21st.

Donations were made to Whitley’s cause by Harp’s Marble Hill, New Era Bank, and members of the community, Stevens said.

Previously, Stevens said $1,700 was raised for t-shirt sales, and some raffles. There was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament organized by Canon Family Grocery. Trackside Hardwood and SEMO Suds both donated $2,500 as well, Stevens said.

There will be more events in Whitley’s benefit, such as a truck pull on August 22, where James is auctioning his personal pulling truck.

James expressed his gratitude for Marquand.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I came from a larger community where nobody knew anybody, except for your neighbors. In this town, everybody knows everybody. Never in a million years would I have expected a community to pull together like this and be so supportive.”