Bluffton garage sale helps teachers and family in need

They came from all over the area, shuffled sleepily up the drive toward the open garage and rifled through baskets and bins overflowing with books and school supplies.

"I take it you were a teacher," said a curious bystander who stopped at the garage sale on Old Miller Road early Saturday morning only to discover this wasn't any ordinary sale.

"I'm still a teacher," said Barbara Hodgins. "I'm just teaching something different, so I don't need all this stuff."

Having spent 14 years at area elementary schools and another seven running the teacher's store "School Days," Hodgins was bound to accumulate some things. Like a hefty-size bin full of pink erasers or a stack of nearly new Webster's Thesauruses. There was even a fold-out, illustrated volume on the human body complete with a three-dimensional skeleton.

Hodgins, who taught second and third grades at Bluffton, Okatie and Red Cedar elementary schools, is switching gears to become a literacy teacher starting at River Ridge Academy on Monday. All the accompanying "stuff" from her former role just wasn't needed any longer, she said, so getting rid of it has been on her mind lately.

Josh Aragon, who is fighting multiple sclerosis, also has been on her mind. Aragon, 38, of Bluffton, is the son of Hodgins' colleague, Leon Aragon, a teaching assistant at Red Cedar. The former Hilton Head High School baseball standout has been living with the debilitating disease for more than a decade and now faces expensive medical treatment.

Hodgins had taken note of several fundraisers held in recent months for Aragon -- from a dog wash to a tennis match -- and wanted to help.

"So I thought, why don't I have a yardsale," Hodgins said. Her hope was that the sale would help not only the Aragon family but teachers looking for bargain classroom finds.

Sarah Sharp, a speech therapist at Whale Branch Elementary, stopped by the sale. She had heard about it on Beaufort County's Facebook page and was hoping to find interlocking foam puzzle pieces for her classroom. She didn't find the puzzle pieces but came away with magnetic letters, blocks and classroom decorations.

"Just a few things to brighten it up in there," she said.

Josh's mother, Lindy Aragon, said hearing about such efforts helps to bolster the family.

Conventional treatments have not worked for Josh Aragon, so he and his family are seeking another treatment called nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, or HSCT. HSCT, which works by removing stem cells then replacing them in order to "reboot" the immune system, has been approved by the FDA only for clinical trials in the U.S. but has been performed in other countries with success, Lindy Aragon said.

"It's a common procedure in other countries," she said.

The procedure is not covered by most insurance plans and can run as high as $175,000, Lindy Aragon said. Still, the family has been greatly encouraged by the community's support. With the help of fundraisers, the family estimates it has met about 20 percent of their goal.

Meanwhile, Josh Aragon continues to have what his mother describes as "periods of pretty good and ... periods of not so good."

High temperatures and humidity can take their toll on MS sufferers, and Josh Aragon has endured greater pain lately and more spasticity, or muscle tightness, which impacts his ability to move and sleep, his mother said.

Still, the family is looking forward to a football game between Battery Creek and Bluffton High School Friday, when more fundraising activities will be held. The family doesn't know if he will be able to attend or if they'll stay for the entire game, but they hope to make the half-time activities.

"There are bad days," Lindy Aragon said. "But then you step back and think about the last good thing someone did, and that lifts you up. Then you don't feel like you're all alone."

Follow reporter Mindy Lucas at twitter.com/MindyatIPBG.

This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Bluffton garage sale helps teachers and family in need."