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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Medfield is one of the most incredible communities in the area, and no one will tell you that more than Heidi Johnson.
Heidi’s son, William, has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), and Heidi has been working since he was two years old to help raise money towards Cure SMA, a national foundation which gives money towards research. Last Saturday morning, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., Heidi held the 13th annual Cure SMA Yard Sale. Unfortunately, the brutal weekend storm did not let up, even for as great a cause as the Johnsons’.
Despite that, Heidi shared just how incredible the community had been, and the support they offered despite ideal weather conditions.
“We usually get up before six, come out here to set up … all of a sudden, four boys from William’s Medfield high school volleyball team came to help at 6:30 in the morning,” she said. “I had put a message out to everyone that we have this, and if you need volunteer hours you can come out. I sent it to their parents and most of them were like, ‘Oh, that’s a little early for my kid.’ But some parents were like, ‘Hop out of bed and go help the Johnsons,’ and four of them did, and they’ve been here ever since.”
That is exactly the kind of support and help the Medfield community has given to William and his family since his diagnosis.
All of the proceeds from the yard sale go towards the 2017 Walking for William team in the Cure SMA Walk-n-Roll on May 20.
The items scattered on Heidi’s lawn and porch were all donated by the Medfield community, as well.
“I open up the house for two weeks before our sale every year. People literally just leave things on my porch if it’s raining or in front of my garage bay if it’s nice,” she explained.
However, she was extremely candid about the turnout of the event on this rainy, dreary Saturday.
“This was terrible turnout. We had no shoppers compared to usual.” Despite that, Heidi said that just at checkout, they had raised about $1,500. “Some people, because we do this, they’ll take a little bowl and hand me a very sizable check because it’s all going to our walkathon. Essentially, it’s just a pledge, but they did walk out with a little rack or a little bowl or something,” she explained.
Rain or shine, the community around the Johnsons is supportive and encouraging. Throughout the morning, more of William’s friends came to help move things to people’s cars, and then move things into a truck to be taken either to the dump or to the Medfield swap.
No matter the circumstances, Heidi and her family keep their chins up and move forward.
