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Snohomish
 River town not known for sitting around and twiddling its thumbs
By MARK HIGGINS
On a cold autumn night, under the bright lights of a small-town high school stadium, Chris Ondras takes the field in his wheelchair. At 14, when the world seemed to have no limits, the hardest hitting player on the Snohomish freshman football team broke his neck at practice. (See background story.) No one knows if it was the collision with another player or the fall that fractured Chris' fifth vertebra, crushing his spinal cord. It doesn't matter now, said his dad, Scott Ondras. What matters is for Chris to come to terms with the loss of his mobility. To help lift his spirits, Chris attended his team's final regular season game. The feelings of sorrow and worry would have been worse for Chris' family had it not been for their neighbors, some of whom they never knew until the accident. They brought food, and set up a trust fund for Chris. His friends visited him almost every night at Children's Hospital in Seattle. The school district sent a bus down with the team for a group photo. "It's awesome. I can't think of another word to describe it," said Chris' mom, Kathy.
The $20,000 addition will have wheelchair ramps, an 8-foot sliding glass door, a big deck for Chris and friends, and a bathroom equipped for wheelchair use, said Tillicum Kiwanis President Bob Lemon. "Chris is a good kid and an excellent athlete, and he impressed a lot of people," said his dad. "I like to think they're doing it because he is such a good guy." The truth is, Snohomish is doing it because the little city by the big muddy river has a history of helping neighbors in need. The outpouring of help may have something to do the city's size. It has just 7,800 residents, many with ties going back generations. "Snohomish is still small enough to maintain a community identity," said Bob Bryce, a local bank president. "Some towns are gobbled up and merged into everything around them. To get to Snohomish you have to drive across a trestle, farm fields or mountains. When you get here, there is a clear sense of community."
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Led by the Tillicum Kiwanis, the community located an architect, carpenters, masons, roofers, plumbers and electricians, who agreed to work for free and build an addition onto the Ondras' home for Chris.
