Community packs school to ‘unite’ for Timmie

Hundreds of people helped to raise thousands of dollars Wednesday night for the Bowie family.

At the city-wide variety show, it was clear by the number of people stuffed into Pocatello High School’s lobby that organizers named the event correctly– everyone there was United for Timmie.

This station first brought you the story of Timmie Bowie last week — she’s a 16-year-old Highland High School girl who is suffering from aplastic anemia. She had to spend a month in Children’s Primary Hospital fighting for her life, undergoing 18 expensive surgeries. Timmie is no ordinary girl; she’s a star athlete in soccer and basketball, she’s an honors student who takes all AP classes and she’s broken records for her community service efforts.

The flood of people coming through the door stopped just long enough for ticket-takers Ronda Lyn Rodriguez and Patty Harding to talk about the generosity they saw.

“One lady came up to buy $200 worth of raffle tickets and she wanted them all to go towards Timmie,” Rodriguez said.

“So if she won, she wanted the prize to go toward Timmie,” Harding said.

“Which I thought was wonderful,” Rodriguez said.

And as the crowds of people rushed around checking out the silent auction and raffle items, so much was going on behind the scenes. The event started at 6:30 p.m. and backstage organizer Cyndie Lyons was only able to get into the school at 4 p.m. to start setting up.

“And it’s been, kind of, total chaos ever since,” Lyons said.

Lyons’ daughter, Megan, started playing soccer with Timmie when they were just 5 years old, and the girls have grown up in sports and school together ever since. Timmie even helped Megan get into basketball.

“Timmie’s always the first one in line to do something for somebody else and so it’s great to see the community come together and do something for her. Give back a little bit of what she’s given to us,” Lyons said.

And give back they did. A huge opening number involving dozens of students filled the auditorium with light and a huge dance mob. Timmie’s friend Hope Bailey choreographed the dynamic number, and said Timmie is an inspiration to so many of the students at Highland, and that inspiration shined through in the face of each dancer.

“She’s a strong fighter. I know that, I know that she’s going to make it through, because she’s going to come out strong,” Bailey said.

And maybe stronger, because of the love and support from her friends and community. As the lights went black at the end of the number, the crowd roared through the darkness, each person united for Timmie.

Timmie is waiting to see if the treatment she received at Primary Children’s will help her body create new white blood cells. If not, she’ll have to undergo a bone marrow transplant in Washington, D.C.

Organizers said they were hoping to make $10,000 from the event.