Sparta, pop. 1,770, shows its oversized heart

Some fill the marquees and large, portable message boards. Others are hand-lettered and taped to the corners of windows in mom-and-pop stores.

The signs are everywhere on the drive north along U.S. 21. They start appearing shortly after cresting the Eastern Continental Divide, increase in frequency as you zip past the Cherry Lane Volunteer Fire Department and cruise into the two-block downtown business district.

The crescendo seems to culminate at the turn into Alleghany High School; they all carry a variation on the same theme.

Our prayers are with you, Luke.

Abrupt change

Luke Hampton's story is well-known by now. It's a tragedy, a story that spread across the country at the speed of the Internet.

Still, it bears repeating, as what has happened in the three weeks since he was severely injured has been both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Hampton is a senior at Alleghany High and nearly halfway through a final year that was the envy of a lot of red-blooded American boys.

He was a football star and the top-rated wrestler in his weight class, 182 pounds. He's the kind of kid you might find in the school office in the morning, joking with the receptionist and pitching in to deliver messages if need be.

That dream year took an abrupt, jarring and life-changing turn Dec. 3, though. Hampton broke two vertebrae in his neck, the C5 and C6, and severely damaged his spinal cord when he crashed head-first into a padded wall during a wrestling tournament in Lenoir.

"When I saw it, I thought maybe a concussion or he just hit his head," said Derrick Calloway, Alleghany's wrestling coach, a few days after the accident. "Right when I got to him, I knew immediately it wasn't good."

Instead of struggling to get through two-plus hours of a brutal wrestling practice, Hampton strives to wiggle a toe and take a first, small step toward the recovery his family and friends so desperately crave.

Hampton's home, for now, is a bed at the Shepherd Center, a spinal-cord rehabilitation center in Atlanta. He's starting to use a mechanized wheelchair that a patient maneuvers by blowing into a straw, and his folks are spending Christmas with him in a regular patient room instead of the intensive-care unit where he had been staying.

"As is the case with any serious injury of this kind, he has made some progress and had some setbacks," said Chris Barnes, the principal at Alleghany High who's been acting as de facto spokesman for Luke and his family. "But they're holding out on the definitives.

"They just can't tell yet what's permanent. How much is being caused by swelling and how much by injury to his body? He is fighting and his family is committed to getting him home."

Helping the family

It is that part, the getting Luke Hampton back home, where heartbreak begins to turn just a little.

It's reasonable — expected even — that Hampton's classmates and friends would close ranks and embrace his family in this time of need. It really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, either, that the townsfolk have pitched in, too.

The scope and depth of that response from the town of Sparta (population 1,770) and surrounding Alleghany County (11,155) belie the size of the community. People who know the Hamptons perhaps just through a nod or a wave, as well as those who watched Luke grow into a man, are doing whatever they can think of to ease the family's worry.

Some of that support is material. Money has come pouring in to an account set up in Hampton's name through the state credit union. Receipts from high school basketball games and wrestling tournaments have been donated.

"I really have no idea how much," Barnes said. "Probably more than $50,000 at this point, I'd say."

The exact amount doesn't matter. The hard truth is, whatever is raised likely won't cover the medical cost of treating and rehabilitating a catastrophic spinal-cord injury.

Perhaps more tangible than an amount in a bank account is the way some of the money has been raised.

Sparta is not a wealthy place. The average annual household income is $28,124 — more than $15,500 less than the statewide average.

Still, residents have pitched in by giving deeply of what they have. Some have offered proceeds from Christmas trees and wreaths; that's a huge industry in Northwest North Carolina. Others have organized various fundraisers, sold T-shirts and even raffled off a pure-bred miniature schnauzer puppy.

And the kids in vocational-ed classes at Alleghany High (and their teachers) are moving to build a wheelchair-friendly addition to the Hampton family home. They intend to finish it in less than six weeks — just in time for Luke to come home.

All the materials have been donated by local building-supply companies, as has the use of equipment needed by the crews. The footing for the foundation was poured last week, and weather willing, work will continue as quickly as possible.

"The carpentry, the masonry, the electrical work … we have a lot of options here at the school the kids are learning," Barnes said. "Our goal here is for (the Hamptons) not to have to touch any of the money for construction."

Support has come in from around the state and country, too. Wrestling is a small sport that by its nature builds a tight-knit community. Teams from North Carolina have sent proceeds from tournaments, and wrestling parents from as far away as California and Alaska have called the school to see how they could help.

Then there is the spiritual support. Untold numbers of prayers and good thoughts have been offered in Luke's name. A ladies' knitting circle from a Methodist church in Canton sent up a prayer quilt.

Each knot in the quilt's squares represents a prayer said; faculty members at Alleghany High added their own knots before it was sent to Atlanta.

"(Luke's mom) said they're overwhelmed by the generosity and prayers this town and others have given them," Barnes said. "I just told her that she's always given back to this school and this community herself, and that they're just reaping what has already been sown already."