How many times can you sell a pig? In Teton Valley, when one of our own is fighting through the worst kind of struggle, the answer is enough times to raise nearly $21,000.
As 2-year-old Edie Barnes continues her battle with a rare form of childhood leukemia, her father and siblings at home while she and her mother suffer in Salt Lake City, she was given a rare glimpse at the solidarity a community can show.
At the 2014 Teton County Fair 4-H auction, a stage pig was auctioned again and again and again selling for between $500-1,400 each time, until the pig had raised roughly $21,000 for the family. It was sold a total of 34 times.
“We did all this within about 13 minutes,” said auctioneer Ken Chambers.
In February, 2-year-old Edie was diagnosed with chromosome positive, acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She was immediately transported to Salt Lake City and has been undergoing a radical trial treatment ever since.
Recently, she finished her final planned block of radiation and has been responding well. Doctors declared that she is currently cancer free, and her fragile frame will not have to undergo a bone marrow transplant.
She and her mother Cara were able to celebrate from home, an occurrence that has been far from the norm over the past months. While Edie and Cara are together in SLC, Rod Barnes has been keeping life together in Driggs and watching over their other children.
Two of them showed and sold their sheep and pigs at auction through 4-H, a network that has grown tighter with the Barnes family each passing day.
Previously, there was a member whose mother had grown ill, and this was the first time they auctioned a stage animal for support. Why wouldn’t they do it again?
Inspired, 15-year-old Braiden Klinger donated the turkey he spent the summer raising to the cause, and it generated an additional $1,200 for Edie. The pig he had raised all summer for sale at auction died shortly before the fair, so that turkey was going to be his only source of revenue.
“That’s what 4-H does,” said Chambers. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
Edie’s trial is only one-quarter of the way complete, and there are still 18 months to go. Come January of 2015, she might be able to return to Driggs for good, where she will travel to Rexburg for frequent checkups and SLC only once every six weeks. With the recent contributions, the family will be able to travel freely to Rexburg and SLC when necessary without the financial burden weighing further on the serious nature of their visits.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and Edie has that firsthand experience. Being a citizen of Teton Valley means something different to everyone, but to the Barnes family, it means that no matter what hardship befalls, there is an entire community that will dive in the sty with them to show they are not alone.
“I was just so overwhelmed,” she said. “It was all I could do to breathe.”
Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so through an account set up at US Bank in Driggs called “Donation Fund for Edie Barnes and Family.”
Money will go to support Edie Barnes family.
This article appeared in the Teton Valley News on August 14, 2014.