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Walmart Transportation gives girl lift across town, then to Seattle
The local Walmart Transportation office gave a little girl a ride around town on Saturday afternoon, but the funds they raised should take her a lot farther than that.
At six years old, Alexis Stringer has already had 47 surgeries. She suffers from venous vascular malformation, which requires surgery every few weeks just to keep her airway open. That works out to 12 or so surgeries a year.
Through a new procedure at Seattle Children’s Hospital, that number could come down to one or two a year. While that’s still more surgery than most of us can imagine, it would represent a massive improvement in quality of life for Alexis and her family.
That’s where the Greencastle Walmart Transportation office stepped in and decided to help out. As if having the surgery isn’t prohibitive enough, there’s also the problem of roundtrip airfare to Seattle for Alexis and at least one parent.
Through the Walmart Heart program, the local office raised $2,000 in employee donations.
On Saturday, the presentation was made to Alexis and her family, but the money wasn’t the only thing the little girl got out of the afternoon.
With family and Walmart associates gathered at the office, Area Manager Todd Stoltey presented Alexis with a Walmart Transportation shirt that was personalized not only with her name, but a number of patches that would also be worn by Walmart Transportation associates.
After donning her new shirt, Alexis climbed into a rig with driver Scott Stierwalt and got a ride around town. Her mom Erin Pitt got to ride in the semi tractor behind them and communicate with Alexis on the radio the whole time.
Local law enforcement also got in on the act, with Greencastle Police officers giving an escort around town.