Pay It Forward: Tracey Stelly
At KLFY News 10, we want to take the opportunity to give back to the community, so we’ve teamed up with Bob Giles and Giles Automotive to do just that.
We go out into the community to find a good samaritan and then, we give that person $500 cash.
Then we challenge them to ‘Pay It Forward’ by giving that money away to someone truly deserving.
News Ten’s Sylvia Masters has the story.
We first met Yvonne Simon in the grocery parking lot.
“I’m Yvonne Simon. I live in Forked Island. I’m retired, semi-retired. I help take care of our family’s property at the Flying J Ranch.”
Little did we know, Yvonne knew exactly what we were there for, and immediately thought of someone to pay it forward to.
“Tracey Stelly,” Yvonne said. “She has handicaps and all kinds of other troubles and she has two children and she works from home what she can do. We haveall of our houses elevated because of the hurricanes. She really needs to try to get an elevator at her house because she has MS and other problems.”
The day we met Yvonne, she told us Tracey’s boyfriend was in the hospital.
She called Tracey saying she had something to give her.
And so off we went to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital to meet Tracey Stelly. Even hopping in Yvonne’s car so we could all surprise Tracey.
Yvonne called Tracey asking, “Where are you right now?”
Tracey responded, “In the front right at the entrance.”
Tracey was taken aback when she saw us approach her.
News Tens Sylvia Masters said, “Hi. Are you Tracey? Hey, Tracey. I’m Sylvia Masters with Ch. 10. This is Mr. Bob Giles with Giles Automotive. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Tracey said,“Nice meeting y’all, too.”
“So we met Yvonne in the Albertson’s parking lot and we have a program called ‘Pay It Forward.’ Have you heard of it?”
“Yes ma’am,” said Tracey.Sylvia said to Tracey, “So we asked Yvonne if she could think of anyone that could use a helping hand. That could use $500 and she immediately thought of you.”
Bob Giles added, “So we gave her $500 and she wanted to give it to you.”
Tracey and Yvonne hug saying “I love you” to each other.
Yvonne said to Tracey, “Hopefully, it can help with your elevator.”
Tracey has had Multiple Sclerosis for 43 years and been through multiple surgeries, making it hard for her to walk up her house which is elevated 15 feet above the ground in Forked Island. At the time, Tracey told us that her boyfriend had a 10% chance of survival.
Tracey said, “My boyfriend. He’s in ICU. He had a hole in his stomach and they did emergency surgery because he has toxic all over his body and he was also going into a heart attack at the process.”
Sylvia asked Tracey, “How old were you when you got diagnosed with MS?”
“Two. Been fighting with it ever since,” said Tracey.
A fight that was made a little easier, thanks to Tracey’s good friend, Yvonne, who chose to pay it forward to her.