Fill the bus, fill their bellies

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

Life goes awry without warning, like when a young father has an attack that results in a multiple sclerosis diagnosis that drops him from his health insurance plan.

It gets worse when another attack renders that young father unable to work.

"It was really debilitating," the young father's wife, Melissa Sharon, said Thursday. "Our twins were in kindergarten and we had no income for months and months."

Melissa's husband, Dave, was in his late 20s when MS took over his life. He worked for four years after the diagnosis, but the relapsing remitting nature of his affliction makes it impossible to work through intense muscle spasms and nerve pain.

"He was in executive management in retail," she said. "When he's stressed out he can't do it. He had to go on disability."

This Hayden family had to navigate uncertain waters without the security of health care and stable income. Melissa is a part-time substitute in School District 271 and created Keepsake Rulers and Designs to sell handmade rulers and growth charts to help support their family.

But their situation did not go unnoticed. Friends and neighbors rallied and lifted the family in their time of need.

"The community and local churches surrounded us and we were taken care of miraculously," Melissa said. "That Christmas, people would come to our house until 10 at night with truckloads of presents. Our kids still call it the 'God Christmas.'"

The family still has it tough. They recently found a used stove to replace their old one, which had been broken since May.

Despite their problems, the Sharons pay forward the kindness that has been shown to them. They've raised funds for refugees and coordinated a boot drive for Borah Elementary.

"We feel like we need to show people we care about them and they're not invisible," Melissa said. "When you're really struggling, you can feel like that."

In her work as an elementary sub, Melissa has witnessed the pain that occurs when children are sent to school hungry. She was recently in a school where the teacher had no spare food and the school's pantry was cleaned out, so the students had nothing.

"The kids started crying and hiding under desks," she said. "I texted my husband and told him, 'You have to bring a big bag of pretzels, right now.'"

Melissa said ideally, parents provide the snacks, but if they don't, it falls on the teachers, who use their own money to buy them.

"It doesn't seem like a long time between breakfast and lunch for us adults, but that is a really long time for kids, especially for the kids who are food insecure," she said.

Hungry students have trouble focusing and staying on task, she said.

"If these kids are hungry during the day, it's harder to teach them and have them be successful," Melissa said. "We have a huge disparity in our schools. We have these high-income schools and then we have schools that are 100 percent poverty.

"It's just night and day, their experience, what these kids have to go through."

This has led to a busload of benevolence from the Sharon family.

The Sharons and their business are hosting the Snacks for Kids — Let's Fill a Bus event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at McEuen Park to collect classroom and school snacks for the more than 400 Coeur d'Alene School District kids who need them.

Examples of requested portioned snacks: granola/breakfast bars, Kellogg's Nutri-Grain soft baked cereal bars, Clif Bar Kid Zbars, Nature Valley granola bars (nut-free), single-serve Belvita soft-baked breakfast biscuits, Pepperidge Farm single-serve baked whole grain cheddar fish crackers, Pirate's Booty single-serve 0.5-ounce aged white cheddar puffs, Annie's Bunny Grahams 1.25-ounce bags, multigrain Sunchips 1.5-ounce bags, 1-ounce packages of raisins and Craisins and 1-ounce bags of Sensible Portions Garden Veggie Straws.

Fresh fruit and string cheese will be accepted and distributed right away. Tax-deductible monetary contributions will also be accepted.

"My hope is that we fill the bus up, and that we have to call the school district to have them send another," Melissa said. "My goal is we as a community start talking about this and talking about that there is this issue and how we can come together and support the school district."

Info: www.facebook.com/events/294551641140195/