The New Bloomfield community and FFA chapters across Mid-Missouri are rallying around one of their own.
Kalyn Davis made it through two days of her senior year at New Bloomfield High School when she was in a vehicle accident near Columbia that nearly took her life.
Since then, she's received a flood of well-wishes and donations from her FFA chapter, other area FFA chapters, her classmates and the community.
"I'm just overwhelmed by the support from my friends and the community of New Bloomfield," she said Sunday morning, while attending the annual New Bloomfield FFA barbecue with her parents.
The event featured live and silent auctions to benefit her. Dean Reichel, the New Bloomfield FFA adviser, said the auctions alone could raise $4,000-$5,000. Other groups have held their own fundraisers for Davis. At Sunday's event, New Bloomfield FFA member Braden Kliethermes presented her with a donations box from an FFA car wash fundraiser for her.
Davis, president of the New Bloomfield chapter, is a Type 1 diabetic. She doesn't remember the Aug. 25 wreck, but speculated she fell asleep after her insulin pump malfunctioned.
The 17-year-old was driving to Prairie Grove to meet her parents for an archery competition. She was on Route J in Callaway County when her vehicle went off the road on a curve, hit a culvert, rolled end to end and on its side. Davis broke her collar bone and eight ribs, among other things. Although she doesn't remember the wreck, Davis must have unbuckled her seat belt and crawled out of the vehicle.
First responders found her in a ditch and life-flighted her to University Hospital in Columbia. Since then, she's undergone four surgeries and is continuing rehabilitation.
Davis had no internal organ damage, and her doctors expect she will make a full recovery. For now, she gets around in a wheelchair.
She has insurance coverage, but her family doesn't expect it will pay all the bills, which they said could easily top $1 million.
Reichel said the New Bloomfield FFA members wanted to do something for Davis, and they came up with different ideas. "It started rolling like a snowball downhill," he said.
For the auctions, chapter members solicited donations and got everything from items from the St. Louis Cardinals and Missouri Tigers to tools. The South Callaway girls basketball team donated items, including a hunting tree stand.
"It's really been amazing," he said.