THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
THE TABLE HAS been turned on the ``money man'' of Richmond, Virginia.
Thomas Cannon - the former postal employee who has given away more than $77,000 during the past 18 years to organizations and individuals doing humanitarian work - is getting a return on his investment he didn't seek.
Folks from around the country, including many from Hampton Roads who learned about Cannon through this column, have been sending money to help the philanthropist who uses a sleeping bag for a bed.
Yes, Cannon, 69, still sleeps in a sleeping bag by his ailing wife's side in their small, 40-year-old frame house, which has neither central heat nor air conditioning.
He still rises in the middle of the night to hang a bag of glucose on a bedside pole and connect it to the tube in her stomach.
Owning no car, he continues to pedal to the grocery or post office on the bicycle he has named ``The Spirit.''
And the living room wall above his bedridden wife - who suffers from blindness and the effects of two strokes - is, as before, decorated with oversize replicas of U.S. coins.
The change in Cannon's life has come from the small avalanche of cards and letters he has gotten since his story was first told by columnist-reporter Betty Booker of The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
And in the more than $32,000 that has been sent in checks to the Thomas Cannon Benefit Fund. The money will be used to pay for the Cannons' medical and living expenses and - it's hoped - enable the couple to move into a house suitable for the care of an ill person.
Cannon said he had known he had some friends and supporters but had no idea how many when we talked on the phone earlier this week.
``This has been absolutely wonderful,'' he said. ``A lot of the checks have come from down there where you live. I know because the East-West Foundation, which established the fund, sends me Xerox copies of the checks.''
Contributions to the fund have ranged from $1 to $1,000, he said. ``I've been trying to write thank-you notes to those who contributed to the fund,'' he said, ``but there have been so many I don't know when I'll get all of 'em done.''
Cannon, who has received 37 awards - certificates and plaques - for his humanitarian works, said it would have been hypocritical of him not to accept the contributions to the fund.
``The kind people who sent checks did that as a gesture of respect,'' he said. ``I have no problem with that, because it's what I did myself over the years. And it inspires me to keep on giving.''
Cannon's last gifts to others were over the Christmas holidays, when he sent checks totaling $1,000 apiece to a pair of Richmond policemen who rescued a dog from a frozen lake and to a seaman whose whose wife and child were being evicted from their apartment.
The fund for him was established by the East-West Foundation, a Midlothian charity.
A spokesman for the fund, Gary W. Fenchuk, a Chesterfield developer and author, said earlier this month that Cannon's influence on the Richmond community ``has been more profound, in a positive way, than anything I can possibly think of.''
``It's the ultimate justice for us all to try to reciprocate,'' Fenchuk said. ``My hope is that while Thomas Cannon has been gracious in giving that he will be graceful in receiving.''
Cannon cares for his bedridden wife, Princetta, around the clock, attending to her every need.
He said his son gave him a new sleeping bag that is much more comfortable than his old one.
``I don't do it all alone,'' he said. ``Several women, who have jobs and run their homes too, come by and sit with my wife when I go out to shop and pay bills. And I've learned to take naps when I'm not looking after Princetta.''
Anyone wishing to contribute can mail contributions to: the Thomas Cannon Benefit Fund, First County Bank of Chesterfield, 10400 Hull St. Road, Midlothian, Va. 23112. by CNB