Dog lovers join forces to help paralyzed teenager

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Dog lovers join forces to help paralyzed teenager
By John Plestina

Special to the Sun Journal

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Three months after a tragic accident left a Sabattus teenager paralyzed, friends from beagle clubs from several states came together Sunday to help the way they know best - by "beagling."


The only child of Robert and Tina Foster grew up around the Kennebec Valley Beagle Club, which her father has served as president of for several years. Sheena Foster worked at the clubhouse on Lunts Hill Road preparing food and doing other duties since she was a little girl. Many of the "beaglers" from the Northeast know her. When they heard she was paralyzed from an accident this summer, more than 150 people from several New England states and from as far away as Michigan came to Litchfield with 59 dogs and raised nearly $3,000 at the Sheena Foster Fun Trials.


A brief inattentive moment behind the wheel of her first car resulted in a single-vehicle rollover on Route 196 in Lisbon on Aug. 24. The 17-year-old is paralyzed from the chest down with a spinal cord injury.


"These are all our friends. They come from different beagle clubs," said Tina Foster.


Sheena Foster explained that Beagle competitions are divided into classes of male and female, and heights of 13 and 15 inches. "They're put in a fenced area. They chase rabbits. The judges judge them on how good their noses are."


Her mother added that judges run with the dogs to observe. "They really have to be using their noses."


The Fosters were presented with $100 donations from the Androscoggin Beagle Club in Auburn and the Eastern Maine Beagle Club in Carmel. They also received a letter from a beagle club in Massachusetts that is planning a similar fund-raiser in February.


Winslow High School and Kents Hill Academy separately held walk-a-thons in September. The two schools jointly presented the Fosters with more than $2,000.


The money raised helps pay for costly medical equipment not covered by the family's insurance. The Fosters have also incurred expenses enlarging a bathroom in their home to make it wheelchair accessible and plan to build an additional ramp on the outside of their house.


"There have been a lot of people that have donated, my co-workers and my husband's co-workers," Tina Foster said. She works for Fleet Bank. Robert Foster, a welder and pipe fitter, works out of Local 716 in Bangor.


'Overwhelming'


"It's really overwhelming," Sheena Foster said. "The medical supplies that I need - the money will not go without use. Medical supplies are so expensive."


The senior at Oak Hill High School has maintained her schoolwork the past three months with the help of a tutor. She returns to school full-time this week after going on Thursday on a trial basis. "It gets boring sitting around the house."


An athlete at Oak Hill before the accident, she played field hockey, basketball and softball.


One week at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston was followed by five weeks at Harvard Medical Center's Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston.


At the time of the accident, Robert Foster was working in Boston. "That was part of our decision to go to Spaulding," Tina Foster said. She stayed with her husband during her daughter's rehabilitation.


"Our lives have changed a lot," she added. "Overall, she's in good spirits. My main concern was how she was going to adapt to this. Sheena, emotionally, is handling it very well. She's looking at it as I can't walk anymore. I can't run anymore. Life goes on. She saw a lot of kids in Boston who were 10 times worse off than her. As soon as she got home from the hospital she wanted another car."


Sheena Foster's boyfriend, Jason McDonald of Sabattus, has been there for her through the entire ordeal. "Besides my parents, he's been wonderful. There aren't words for that."


Before she was injured, she planned to go to nursing school after graduation from Oak Hill. She now plans to attend the University of Southern Maine at Lewiston-Auburn College next fall to work toward a bachelor's degree. Career areas she is considering include medical administration and forensic science.


Fleet Bank started the Sheena Foster Fund immediately following the accident. "They have been a tremendous help to me as an employer," Tina Foster said. To contribute to the Sheena Foster Fund, contact any Fleet Bank branch.



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