Known by its catch phrase “Feels Like Home,” the Brownwood area often lives up to what that means by helping those in need, and Saturday night was no exception as buyers raised one little girl’s bid to $8100 when they learned of her medical condition and financial needs.
Paige Florence, 12, of Mullin had placed 9th out of 20 and was excited to be entered into the sale. According to her mother Michelle Florence, Paige was diagnosed about 5 years ago with a rare form of juvenile arthritis, Eosinophilic Fasciitis, which is a condition where her white blood cells attack the lining of her muscles causing contractions of the muscle at the joints. It also causes a scleroderma effect, hardening of the skin from the inside out. Paige has spent the past 5 years receiving treatments at no cost from the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, about half of that time she was involved with inpatient treatment. Because of the treatment and care that Paige has received from the Scottish Rite Hospital at no cost and the time she has spent there, she decided to give 20% of her sale premium back to the hospital as her own donation. By giving the auctioneer, Keith Hetzel a note she felt she might raise her bid to possibly $500 total; however, that was not the case.
Little did the Florences know, Hetzel himself has dealt with arthritis as a child, diagnosed at 16 according to Michelle. He then took it personally and started the bidding by explaining the situation and pledging a bid of $300 from the Redman Lodge, then challenged everyone in the building to help out. Bids kept coming and overwhelmed Paige’s family.
“We thought it (the note) might bump the bid to $500, and that would give Paige $100 to donate,” said Michelle. “When the bids ended and we found out it was $8100, when Paige figured out that meant $1620 for her to donate to Scottish Rite, she was jumping up and down at that.”
Michelle stated that the doctors and nurses at the hospital have become very special to Paige and that although this is a drop in the bucket of the amount of money her treatment costs, she wanted to give back.
“Paige wanted to ‘play it forward’,” said Michelle. “The hospital has been a big part of her life. The nurses and doctors have meant so much to her, keeping her out of a wheel chair and keeping her limbs intact, keeping her life as normal as possible.”
Paige has shown a goat once before, then had flare ups of her disease which made her unable to participate due to weakness, according to her mother. Paige continues her treatments which involve intravenous steroids, and a weekly shot, supplemental vitamin D and calcium, monitoring her kidney and liver function and much more.
Through it all, according to her mother, “Paige keeps her head up, doesn’t complain and is a strong little girl.”
Paige is the daughter of Joel and Michelle Florence, attends school in Zephyr and is a member of FCCLA. Her parents wished to thank the community for their support.
“We want to tell everyone ‘Thank You,’ they haven’t got a clue how much they’ve touched our hearts,” said Michelle. “We’ve always been a part of the community that takes care of each other; how we’ve felt it ourselves.”
