Football greats help DayBreak Center tackle funding needs

Saturday was a night to remember to raise funds for people and families trying not to forget.

The second Night to Remem-ber fundraiser brought together NFL greats Jerry Kramer and Jake Plummer and reminded us all that Sandpoint native Kramer and Sandpoint newcomer Plummer’s hearts are bigger than their stature.

“It’s good to be home,” said Kramer. The smiling Kramer, with the baritone voice, regaled the audience with stories of Vince Lombardi, the University of Idaho and Sandpoint High School coach Cotton Barlow and even quoted — verbatim — long passages from Invictus and Walden Pond.

Kramer was a member of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I and II and has been named to several lists of the best NFL players ever.

NFL quarterback Jake Plummer, who has called Sandpoint home since retiring from the Denver Broncos, shared a story about how he began helping at Sandpoint’s Senior Center and Day Break Center.

“I read a story in the Bee that the Senior Center was looking for drivers to deliver meals,” he said. “I had just retired and I wanted to stay busy and be active.”

Plummer entered the senior center and met the center’s director, Norma White.

He asked White if she needed any help around the center.

“Can you run a rake?” she asked. He said he could. He said he also wouldn’t mind delivering meals to seniors. White said he could drive the van or they would pay him mileage.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said.

She looked up and down at the — in her opinion — shabbily dressed young man with a scraggly beard and said, “Don’t you need a job?”

With that he went to find the rake and got to work.

A few minutes later someone told White that he was THAT Jake Plummer.

“I’m glad she didn’t know or she would have put me in a special chair for celebrities or something like that,” he joked.

Since that beginning, Plummer has been a regular at the center and has raked, delivered meals and has stolen all of the hugs “from the old women” from volunteer John Elsa.

Wednesday is delivery day for Plummer. Sometimes his route takes 45 minutes or 75 minutes “depending if Melva wants to talk or when Carol is in the yard — and Carol is always in her yard even in the snow.”

Plummer grew up in Boise next to his grandparents and is reminded of them when he spends time with the seniors here.

“They taught me to chew your food 20 times, how to dust and whistle,” he said. “The number one thing they taught me was respect for people and especially elders. That’s why I do this.”

His grandfather fought Alzheimer’s and went from being “a kind man to someone we hardly knew.”

Kramer’s brother, Russ, died of Alzheimer’s and was cared for by the DayBreak Center.

“All I could think about was Tammy and how hard it was on her to take care of a man who was like an 18-month-old child. I lost a brother to Alzheimer’s darkness, this horrible disease, we need to get science behind this.”

Sandpoint’s Senior Center feeds 100 people a day at the site or with home delivery.

“The seniors at home are dependent on us to keep their independence,” said board member, Doug Staker.

Staker shared with the audience that the Senior Center’s annual budget is $250,000, of which $150,000 comes from state and federal funds. The rest is raised locally and a good portion comes from anonymous donations, a snowblower raffle, as well as Saturday’s fundraiser.

The DayBreak Center operates on a $70,000 annual budget of which the federal government pays $50,000.

The fundraiser was expected to raise around $5,000 and everyone went away Saturday night amazed and grateful they could spend an evening listening to two NFL greats remind us all that greatness doesn’t just happen on the football field.

David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.