Today I met my hero

Kim, Travis and Mike Burkhart. I LOVE these people, and not only because they bought me a calzone.

Today was a very good day. It’s a Wednesday, and Wednesdays tend to be busy for me. I’m usually working on the Shopper, making lists of what we have and where it goes in Friday’s paper, might have a town council or a school board meeting, I’m usually scrambling to complete stories or my column and I start Friday’s paper so I’m a little bit ahead of the game.

Today was no different, except for the bonus near the end.

For over a week, I’ve been intensely researching and making notes, collecting photos and getting to know the Travis Burkhart Foundation.

I had planned to do a story about TBF a couple of years ago, when I was messaging and emailing back and forth with the secretary (and mom) of TBF, Kim Burkhart, for a story on Tim Tebow’s annual event for people with special needs, Night to Shine. Totally taken by the wonderful event (if you don’t know what Night to Shine is, please search our website for it, it will make you want to volunteer to help. If it does not, you are a monster.), I knew anyone so involved with making it a success had to be a wonderful person. When Kim suggested a story on the foundation, I was all for it, but then there was Night to Shine to write about, and then something else and something else and something else. Long story short, I never got it done. But I never forgot. At the time, I didn’t do any more research than a quick Google search to see what I could find and I recall I found quite a bit. Pressed for time, I abandoned the search and moved on to the next thing on my endless list.

A couple of years passed, and one day I was at Daviess Community Hospital in Washington, getting an infusion treatment. The Oncology Nurse, Sharon, offered me a gas card to help with expenses for the 70-mile round trip twice a week I was driving to get my infusions. She couldn’t have known it at the time, but I was scraping the bottom of the barrel that week, and a $25 gift card for Casey’s was, to put it mildly, a welcome thing. Next, Sharon came over to my chair with a name and phone number written on a piece of paper. “Travis Burkhart Foundation www.travisburkhartfoundation.com, Kim Burkhart,” it said, and it struck me that I had heard of that name and that foundation before. I remembered Kim and the Night to Shine story and thought about the coincidence of my world bumping into the Burkhart world once again.

I decided it must be a sign, and we started talking about getting a story together. We (Me, Mike, Kim and Travis Burkhart) held a phone interview and I found them to be warm, kind and sincere about wanting people to know about the foundation so they could help more.

I started researching the foundation, Kim mailed me an informational book they hand out to people, and away I went.

I wanted to meet them in person and get a current photo of the three, so we made plans to meet up at Goosepond Pizza in Linton Wednesday, where they insisted on paying for the amazing (shameless plug for Goosepond Pizza) calzone I had for dinner there. By this time, after reading so much about Travis and his family, I felt like I knew them well, and knew their hearts were 100 percent in the game. Doing my research, Travis quickly became my hero, and Kim and Mike as well. Their example of strength and love in the face of incredible hardship and the way they didn’t question their commitment to turning the horribly negative situation into something positive and pure, certainly making the world a better place, humbles me and restores my faith in humanity.

The results are today’s feature story. I hope you enjoy it, I sure enjoyed writing it.

With Travis, it’s his smile and the warmth of his hugs. You never want to let go, and he smells nice, too. His smile literally makes you happy. Despite everything he has gone through, he is positive, kind and, well, happy.

The Burkhart family is an antidepressant, and you cannot feel sad or sorry for yourself if you know them. Do yourself a big favor and head to www.travisburkhartfoundation.com to read the story of their journey. It will make your heart smile, I promise.

Patti is Editor of the Greene County Daily World. She loves to laugh and also loves kitties. She’s kind of weird but has a heart of gold. If you would like to share a story or just make a friend, she can be reached at pattippdanner@gmail.com.