Mighty Chester, family get helping hand from city they call home – CBC.ca

Chester Walker, who is called Mighty Chester by his father, Darren, has cerebral palsy, limited vision and is fed via a feeding tube. His family has been selected to be the recipients of the upcoming Random Night of Kindness event in Miramichi.

A year after the first A Random Night of Kindness event was held in Miramichito help Dave Gilham and his family, a wish he expressed justbefore his death to help a fellow Australianand his family is being honoured.

Darren Walker said he and his wife, Cheryl, cried when they were told by event organizers of Gilham'swish to help with the care of their three-year-old son, Chester.

"The first thing I said to Daniel was, 'Why us? There's got to be someone more important than us'. I was overwhelmed," said Walker.

But Daniel Rice, one of the organizers, said it was Gilham who asked that they help Chester's familyafter they visited Gilham in the hospital.

"After they left, Dave looked at me and again, in the whole spirit of just kindness and charity, he said 'That is who your next random acts of kindness night should be for'. He was all a go to have a random nightfor the Mighty Chester."

Mighty Chester, the name Walker proudly calls his son, hascerebral palsy quadriplegia. He has limited used of his arms and legs, is visually impaired and has to be fed through a feeding tube in his stomach.

The Walker family - then just the parents and three daughters - movedto the Miramichiregion seven years ago from Australia and lived on a self-sustaining farm outside the city. But after Chester's birth, Walker said the farm became too much for them to manage while caring for their son.

So they sold it and bought a one-storey house in the city. The move, while difficult, has benefited the entire family and has helped in getting Chester to his appointments.

"There's physio, there's occupational therapy, there's speech therapy and we were spending a lot of time here in town so it just seemed like the sensible thing to do."

But the house needs to have some renovations done, including a bathroom upgradeand a ramp installed to accommodatethe wheelchairs and standers Chester has to use.

"There's so many things that, unless you have a disabled child, it's just some of the things youdon't think about."

While the family has insurance that covers some things for Chester, Walker said there are a lot ofout of pocket costs for them.

"You just got to pay if you want to give him the best quality of life."

A Random Night of Kindness was created by a group of friends who wanted to help Gilham and his family after his cancer diagnosis. Gilhamdied in late November. Rice said the event name came from his friend's social media call for people to be kind to one another.

"Dave had quite a social media following and after his diagnosis with cancer he put on an incredibly brave face and was promoting just kindness in amongst his social media following," said Rice.

"So our random night was just that, a random night of people who dedicated their time and incredible talent to having a really fun atmosphere and evening."

Two more random nights were held and to celebrate the first anniversary, Rice told the group about Gilham's request to help Mighty Chester and the Walker family.

"There's so many people in need and we understand that and we're just a small group of people in an incredibly kind community, so selecting the person is really difficult."

But once the group heard what Gilham had told Rice, picking the Walker family as the next recipients was easy.

"I think this one has been pretty emotional because of what he said to me specifically, but what he said to the group as well."

Rice said the overall hope from the events is that if 300 people attend and enjoy the evening, and then carryout acts of kindless, the community would be a better place.

"One act of kindness, you're looking at a year of kindness. Now think about if you did that five times, it's not a lot."

The event is being held Feb. 29 at the Vogue Theatre in Chatham at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

Walker said he's still overwhelmed that his friend thought of him at that time in his own life. "I still miss him."

He adds those giving their time to the event are special people.

"The people who should be getting all the credit fordoing all the hard work are the people involved with random night of kindness because they've been reaching out and changing the community by their giving nature," said Walker.

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