Garage Sale Raises Hundreds for OHS Student's Surgery

A garage sale at on Saturday raised $588 to help the family of Leah Pierson pay for her recent scoliosis surgery.

Educators from in Oswego organized the sale, which saw dozens of donations from local families. The money collected will go to the Pierson family, to help pay down bills from Leah’s surgery, which she underwent on June 20.

Leah was born with severe scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that can eventually lead to significant health problems. According to Leah’s father, Todd Pierson, the family tried braces and back exercises when Leah, now 15, was younger, but the problem persisted.

The surgery went well, Todd said, and involved inserting rods screwed to her vertebrae to straighten the spine. There were no complications, he said, and Leah is up and walking around.

The surgery was estimated to cost around $300,000, and Todd Pierson, who is self-employed, has an $8,000 deductible on his insurance. Also, he discovered after the surgery that the doctor who performed it was out of his insurance company’s network, so he’s not certain what the final bill total will be.

The organizers of the garage sale – Marquita Popidinski, Lisa Frederick and Beth Boss, all from Churchill Elementary – said attendance on Saturday was steady but slow, and while they wished they could have raised more, every bit helps.

They packed up the sale by 2 p.m., and said they would donate all the unsold items to Goodwill or the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Shop.

Todd Pierson has been keeping a blog with photographs of Leah’s treatments. If you would like to donate to the family, there is an option on the site to do so. To see Todd Pierson’s video about his daughter, .