Community rallies to help 69-year-old woman living in a tent at Lowden campground

OREGON – Sarah Wright smiled broadly as she greeted Barb Davis at the tent she now calls home at Lowden State Park on Thursday.

“I brought you toilet paper and paper towels because that’s what you said you needed,” said Davis, a Mount Morris resident. “Now I have to say hi to Luna.”

Luna, Wright’s 6-year-old dog, happily greeted Davis with lots of tail wags and excited barks. The big white pup is one of the main reasons Wright, 69, is now living in a tent at a campsite at Lowden – in the middle of December.

“I have gone through a series of ‘slum lords,’” said Wright, who previously lived in Polo before the apartment building she was living in was cited by the city as unfit for human occupancy. “I’ve applied for housing, but all I can take is one service dog, which Luna is, and one cat. And I have three cats. All I have are my animals, and I am not going to give them up. Stuff [doesn’t] matter to me.”

Wright, a native of Virginia, moved to Illinois in 2011 to be near her father. In 1998, she visited the Polo area and White Pines State Park with her dad.

“I fell in love with Polo,” she said. “My dad took me to White Pines State Park, and it immediately reminded me of where I grew up.”

Her path to living in a tent at Lowden included being flooded from her rental home near Fulton, living out of a storage unit, staying in an unheated garage loft in the Rock Falls/Sterling area (offered by a friend at no charge) and a homeless shelter.

“In Polo, the landlord allowed me to have my dog and cats, and I thought he was a good guy, but then the home was condemned, and I had to move,” she said.

During those months, she continued to seek a place for herself and her pets, and she has applied for housing through the Ogle County Housing Authority.

“This is better than the shelter,” she said, pointing to her three-season tent. “There was too much drama there, and someone stole my stuff.”

During her days at the shelter, the Whiteside County Animal Control took care of her pets.

“They were wonderful. They took care of my cats and dog. I can’t give them enough praise,” Wright said.

She started camping at White Pines State Park and Lowden in April, alternating between the two, adhering to the parks’ 14-night consecutive stay limit.

“I’ve been at this site since the middle of October,” she said.

Without a vehicle, Wright has relied on the kindness of others and one Polo man in particular, Mark McGinnis, who moved her and her belongings to and from each park every two weeks during the summer.

“Mark has been taking me to all the housing meetings, and he knows all about the drama with the landlord,” Wright said. “He deserves a big ‘hallelujah’ because I know he’s missed family events to help me. He’s taken me to doctor appointments. He’s a real hero of this story.”

McGinnis, a bus driver for the Polo School District, said he has known Wright for about two years.

“She is a wonderful lady, and she has done a lot of things. She has all kinds of stories,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis has a handicapped-accessible van and has transported other Polo residents to and from doctor appointments and to grocery stores at no charge.

“They pay for the gas, I volunteer my time,” McGinnis said, noting that the Faith United Methodist Church in Polo also has reimbursed him for gas for trips.

“When her apartment building was condemned, I moved her belongings to several storage units that she had rented. And then, every 14 days, we loaded up my trailer and we moved her from one campground to another,” McGinnis said. “Sarah has kept me quite busy. It’s just something I saw the need to do.”

Wright’s cats are staying with Kathy Wragg, also of Polo, while Wright and Luna stay at Lowden.

Inside her dome tent, Wright has cots, a heater and a small cooking area. The tent is covered in blue tarps to help keep it warm and dry. She keeps water in jugs, collected from one of the park’s public drinking faucets, and has access to electricity at the campsite. She said she has plenty of camping experience.

“I’ve got my snowshoes ready for when it snows,” she said smiling.

Wright said she worked in law enforcement while in Virginia and spent a few years in security for a retail store in Virginia Beach in addition to various other jobs.

She said she was on disability after a back injury but now has Social Security as her sole source of income.

On Thursday afternoon, her mom, Anne Goney, 87, of Abingdon, Virginia, called.

“I hate to see you living like this at your age,” she told her daughter.

Goney said she was thankful for everyone helping her daughter.

“I have been so upset with her, and I just want to thank everyone so much for helping her,” Goney said during the call. “I don’t have money to bring her home.”

A lot of that help has come after a post on social media about Wright’s plight.

Since that post, many people have stopped by Wright’s campsite with supplies to help her during her stay.

Mike James of Dixon brought Wright a tote full of supplies, including a heater, flashlights, electrical cords and small propane tanks.

“I had the heater, but the rest of the items I bought,” James said as he dropped off the tote Thursday afternoon.

And now a group of Oregon residents are working on fixing a donated camper and van for Wright to use.

Mark Parkinson of Oregon first saw Wright while he was walking his dogs at Lowden. He stopped and talked with Wright and knew immediately that he needed to help her.

“She is a lovely woman,” Parkinson said Friday. “I thought, ‘No, we are not going to let this happen. We are going to fix this. We are going to help her.’”

Parkinson has jump-started that effort by donating his old camper and van to Wright. He and other volunteers will be helping get the camper ready at Parkinson’s home Saturday. The van has been made road-ready for Wright by Buttita Brothers in Oregon.

Parkinson plans to transfer ownership of the van and camper to Wright early next week, then help her update her driver’s license, insure the vehicles and get her a new cellphone.

He also has spearheaded a fundraising effort for Wright at the Oregon NAPA store, where he works.

“We have a donation jar at the store,” Parkinson said. “The camper is just a stepping stone, and the van will help her with her mobility. Now we need to raise money to help Sarah.”

Cash donations can be made at NAPA. Wright does not keep cash at her campsite.

“Love and kindness is the answer. Help if you can,” Parkinson said.

A motorcycle rally called “Men With Motorcycles” also is being planned at noon Saturday, Dec. 23, in cooperation with the Ogle County Brewery, an Oregon business.

McGinnis said he has been monitoring the recent outpouring of help for Wright.

“I would love to see her get an apartment,” McGinnis said.

On Friday morning, Charlie and Sherry Kitzmiller of Oregon stopped by with a load of fresh clothes for Wright.

“They did my laundry for me,” said Wright, carrying the bag of clean clothes to the tent. “And a mobile groomer stopped by, and Luna had a bath and nail trim.”

The Kitzmillers learned of Wright when they saw her tent at the campground.

“We drove through the park, but she wasn’t here when we stopped,” Charlie said. “We came back the next day, and we stopped and talked with her. After we talked to her, we knew we were going to help her.

“The snowball was small when it started rolling, but now it is the size of a barrel. People are asking, ‘How can I help?’“

“She’s very sincere,” Sherry said. “And we believe in her.”

Wright said she is overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and donations.

“This is life-changing,” she said. “When I get the camper and van, I am going to get a job. I haven’t asked for all of this. The heroes are all the ones helping me.”