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‘Andrew’s Bathroom Fund’ aids Salem youth’s special needs
Andrew won a gold medal in the Special Olympics in Columbus earlier this year.
SALEM — “Andrew’s Bathroom Fund,” which began earlier this year to help Andrew Shasteen, 15, is now complete.
Andrew has cerebral palsy. People raised more than $12,200 to build a new bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink that exactly fit him and his needs.
Andrew wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t talkative during a recent visit to his Aetna Street home.
Is he thankful?
“He thanks God for a lot of things,” said his mother, Christina Helman. “We’ve raised him to be a Christian boy.”
Helman said she, too, is thankful to many people she will never know who anonymously contributed to the fund.
She said a former area resident who now lives in Florida helped the Italian-American Club in Salem to have a spaghetti dinner for the fund. The Salem Elks Club donated the special sink and toilet.
Helman said her family has met many people and made new friends during the fund-raising efforts.
“We want to thank everyone involved in this. It’s really changed our lives,” Helman said.
Before the work, Christine had to pick up her son and tote him into a tiny and narrow bathroom.
Andrew still needs help getting out of bed. But the new facilities save about half an hour in his morning preparations.
The roll-in facilities also cut down on the strain on Christine’s back.
Andrew has other issues, including wearing a brace on his right hand to make sure it will be straight with his arm.
He’s already doing dry runs to get ready to return to school. He will either go to Salem as a 10th-grader or be schooled at home.
Meanwhile, Andrew gets around. He won a gold medal in the Special Olympics in Columbus earlier this year in the 50-meter power slalom events.
“He had a blast,” Helman said.
His grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary, so he went on a captain’s dinner cruise on the Gateway Clipper.
And after a trip to the Cleveland Zoo, he became interested in monkeys and wants a monkey theme in the bathroom.
Cindy Morrissey of Lisbon met Andrew when they were both doing water therapy at Salem Community Hospital.
Cindy and her husband, Matt, and their children, Mary, Grace, Claire, Margaret and Matthew, decided as a Christian family to help Andrew — as a lesson in giving in order to receive.
Morrissey said that Chris Stamp Construction did most of the remodeling work and did more than was planned.
Norman VanPelt of Columbiana did all the tiling work with materials donated by Summitville Tile for less money than the work required.
Morrissey said the project will be a big step in helping Andrew become more independent as he gets older.
Morrissey said that prayers were said over every donation.
She added, “It was nice to see everyone coming together as a community, and it just goes to prove that people still believe in Jesus’ teaching regarding ‘loving your neighbor as yourself.’”
wilkinson@vindy.com