ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
IT'S THE PERFECT GIFT for the boy who cannot walk or talk, is nearly blind and severely brain damaged because of abuse he suffered as an infant, before he was adopted.
Santa wasn't going to get the job done quickly enough for Becky Hasenbeck. She needed someone with local connections, someone with investigative skills.
Like many parents in the Roanoke Valley, Hasenbeck needed a Tickle Me Elmo doll for her 4-year-old adopted son, Samuel. But finding one is as easy as buying a snow shovel during a blizzard.
She had checked local stores with no luck. Then she called on her friend and next-door neighbor, Vinton Police Lt. Bill Brown.
"I told him I had a job for him and 'I've already done a lot of [leg]work for you. Your job is to figure out how to get one,''' she recalled.
Hasenbeck is no quitter. That doll wasn't something Samuel wanted, it was something he needed. Because of abuse he suffered as an infant - while in the care of his birth parents - he cannot walk or talk, is nearly blind and severely brain damaged.
The Hasenbecks became Samuel's foster parents when he was 2 months old, while he was recovering in the hospital from his injuries. They later adopted him and his younger sister, Hope.
Patience, constant care and tireless love from Hasenbeck and her husband, their two teen-age daughters and Samuel's biological sister guided the little boy through it all.
"We wanted to do everything in our power to give Samuel a quality life, to make sure it wouldn't be spent sitting in a chair or lying in an institution," Hasenbeck said, bouncing Samuel on her knee as a smile edged across his lips.
Samuel saw his first Tickle Me Elmo doll at a mall. He can hear, feel and see bright colors, and Elmo's blaze of red fur, orange-squishy nose and giggle that rumbles and shakes the doll's body were the perfect combination for him.
He "is real hard to buy toys for," Hasenbeck said. "He doesn't use his hands. It has to make a noise or move. We saw one of the dolls at the mall. When we showed it to him, his face lit up, he grinned. He could feel it moving."
Then a classmate at Grandin Court Elementary brought one to school.
"He got real excited," Hasenbeck said. "I thought, 'Oh no, I won't be able to find one.'''
Until she called Brown. Even though it was Friday the 13th, Hasenbeck wasn't superstitious. Neither was Brown.
He called his friend Don Morrison, program director at 99.1 WSLQ (Q99) in Salem, to see if he knew where to find any extra Elmos. Morrison hooked Brown up with a Christiansburg police officer who had called the radio station during his own search for an Elmo.
The two officers didn't know each other. But their story is sure to become part of their departments' Christmas legends.
At the Christiansburg Police Department, Investigator Curtis Brown is known as the Elmo man - a title he received for his ability to find the dolls. His quest began after he investigated a burglary of a home. The family's Christmas gifts, including an Elmo doll, had been taken.
Curtis Brown found another doll for the family and in his search acquired an extra one from a local store. The Police Department decided to auction off the doll and have the proceeds go to its DARE program.
But when Curtis Brown heard from Vinton police, he changed his mind.
"We felt it was better served by giving the Elmo to that family," Curtis Brown said. "Vinton had the greater need for it."
The afternoon of Dec.13, a Vinton police officer drove to Christiansburg and paid the Police Department $28 for the doll. Hasenbeck had it by that afternoon.
"This is the best Christmas for Samuel," Hasenbeck said.
Samuel recently got some special equipment to help him stand and walk. He doesn't just lie on the ground or get carried around all the time, she said. Now, he has choices. And the Elmo doll will be one more.
"To me," said Vinton's Lt. Bill Brown, "this is what the season is all about."
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON STAFF Samuel Hasenbeck tries out theby CNBTickle Me Elmo doll with his adoptive mom, Becky, after Vinton
Police Lt. Bill Brown delivered the Christmas miracle for the tot.
color.