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Highlands Today

Bill O'Brien Day A Big Success

Joe Seelig, Highlands Today

Former police dispatcher Bill O'Brien is honored as Sebring Mayor George Hensley proclaims Friday, March 13, 2009 as Bill O'Brien Day.

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: March 14, 2009

SEBRING - The smoky smell of pulled pork wafted through the air Friday at Firemen's Field as volunteers prepared about 300 meals to be sold for $6 each in support of a former Sebring police dispatcher, stricken with polio who needed a $6,000 Hoyer lift.

About 300 more meals were sold in Lake Placid. Several people had to be turned away from the lunch because they ran out of food. A few just stuffed their money into a donation jug.

Bill O'Brien has battled with the aftermath of polio since he was a baby and faced an uphill battle as the disease resurged in the form of post polio syndrome.

He didn't let that stop him and he served for 33 years as a police dispatcher with the Sebring Police Department and has served the community in numerous ways, freely volunteering his time for charities, sharing his food and his money.

O'Brien was moved as Sebring Mayor George Hensley read a proclamation for those present, that he had previously read at the Sebring City Council meeting, declaring March 13, 2009 as Bill O'Brien Day. He handed the proclamation to O'Brien.

The couple feared without the lift O'Brien would have to go into a nursing facility.

But friends, family and total strangers have come through for the couple with this and other fundraisers. The Sebring Noon Rotary was a major sponsor of the March 13 event.

"It's almost beyond words," O'Brien said Friday as he helped sell tickets. "If it hadn't been for the Lord, my family and my friends... They all came through."

The Lord is always faithful, he added.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at 863-386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com

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