The list of fund-raising activities scheduled for Chip Roberson was getting longer as these lines went to press. Saturday, January 21 had so many benefit activities scheduled at the Batesville Lions Club that they may as well have named it “Chip Roberson Day.”

And that was before Friday night’s Crossin Dixon benefit concert  was added.

The 45-year-old Roberson suffered neck and spinal cord injuries in an auto accident on September 8. Transported to the Med, he was treated there for 35 days. Later he pursued physical therapy at Shepherd Center in Atlanta before returning to Batesville to continue rehabilitation. He has been designated an “incomplete paraplegic,” said one of his sisters, Meloney Buford.

With that diagnosis, he was headed for a breath-controlled wheelchair. Instead, the determination that he poured into his physical therapy has given him enough mobility for a stick-controlled wheelchair, but he’s not stopping there. Roberson is now at Golden Living Center in Batesville where he is going after continued physical therapy with a “good attitude,” Buford said.

“His goal is to walk,” she added.

This weekend’s benefit activities have the goal of raising money to modify the home of his mother, Ruby Roberson, to make it handicap accessible. His large family and many friends have rallied to help achieve that goal with the spate of fund-raisers that start with the Crossin Dixon concert January 20, resume the next morning with a pancake breakfast, followed by a silent auction in the afternoon, barbecue plates for sale that evening followed by karaoke from 7 to 11 p.m.

We’ve got a track record in this county of responding to benefits with largesse. It helps, of course, when the beneficiary has  many friends and family members who get behind the effort as Robersons have.
But part of the explanation for this outpouring of support has been spawned by Roberson’s response to his injury. He has thrown such heart and determination into regaining as much mobility as possible. Or even impossible. When we see how far he has pushed himself, it makes us want to reach out to help and encourage him.

Given the mobility he has regained through his determined response to physical therapy and ongoing research, much accelerated by the handling of Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties, for treatment of neck and spinal cord injuries, Roberson’s prognosis is open-ended.

Right now, a step that will be important to his future is raising these funds needed to remodel his mother’s home to facilitate further recovery.

(Details of the Jan. 20-21 events, all at the Batesville Lions Club building off Highway 51 North on Tiger Drive: Crossin Dixon Concert followed by Mike Rogers and Mike Hyde, 7-8:30 p.m. Friday night. On Saturday, pancake breakfast, 7-9 a.m.; silent auction, 4-8 p.m., barbecue plates, 5-7 p.m.; karaoke, 7-11 p.m.

For tickets or further information, contact Meloney Buford, 609-9591. Other sources include Angela’s Hair Design, 563-0264; The Candle Shop, 578-0290; Angela Swindoll, 934-1020; Jade Roberson, 934-3814 and Jordon Roberson, 934-3813. For donations, make check to Calvary Baptist Church and designate it for the benefit of Chip Roberson and send to First Security Bank, P. O. Box 690, Batesville, MS 38606.)