GALION – What started as a simple inquisition about a man familiar to the Galion area has turned into a coordinated community effort to help one of their own.
Members of the Galion community Facebook group “GALION GARAGE SALES” asked on Sunday, who is the man they often see sitting outside the Circle K?
“People were wondering if anyone knew his story,” said Brenda Akers, a Galion resident. “So we decided to make our own page.”
Akers and another Galion resident, Jason Davis, created the page “The man and his dog from Galion ohio” to continue the conversation and help the man the community knew.
“This is about getting a man off the streets and a warm place to live for him and his dog,” said Davis.
The man, as it turns out, is 57-year-old George Stradlin. Originally from Morrow County, he has been a resident of Galion for the past 13 years.
“I moved here when my girlfriend’s mother had a heart attack,” Stradlin explained. “We lived with her mother to take care of her, then when she wanted to live by herself we had to move.”
At that time, it seemed that Stradlin’s life started falling apart. His girlfriend of 30 years left him, and he was forced to live in a rodent-infested home that was condemned. He has been there since December 2015.
Stradlin’s struggles don’t end with his living arrangements. He has been unemployed since 1978, when the farmer he worked for had a sickened cow that infected the entire herd and forced the farmer into bankruptcy. He currently sustains himself on $773 per month via Social Security.
“Between paying insurance and other things, it doesn’t leave much leftover,” Stradlin said.
Sickened by his living quarters, Stradlin spends most of his time sitting outside Galion’s Circle K with his puppy, a 13-week-old brindle Pitbull named Brittany.
“She’s my baby,” Stradlin said of the puppy.
It was there that Stradlin started to catch the eye of the community. In various conversations on Facebook, most Galion residents are familiar with Stradlin but perhaps not his story.
“Such a great man, I’ve seen him at Circle K a few times and gave him a few dollars, he looked very thirsty and he wasn’t begging for money,” said one Facebook commenter. “He asked if I would like to pet the puppy and let me hold her, we had a little conversation. I would help him every time I see him if I could.”
Davis created the Facebook page on Sunday evening as a way to spread Stradlin’s story and possibly solicit some help. He did not expect the volume of response he’s received since then.
“I didn’t expect the overwhelming response from the Galion community, but we have more or less generated over 250 members within the last 17 hours,” Davis said.
“I wanted to get the word out there and let people know that this man is not a harmful man or anything of that nature, he’s just a man that loves his dog and is trying to do the best he can to support himself and the dog,” he continued. “He’s never asked for anything – especially not this.”
The goal of the Facebook group is to solicit help for Stradlin, monetary and otherwise.
“With an online reach, if a lot of people do a lot of little things maybe it can make a difference,” said Akers. “We’re trying to get this man out of the weather before he freezes to death.”
So far, Davis has received feedback from Galion residents offering to take Stradlin to fill out apartment applications, to Job & Family Services to sign up for services, people helping to repair Stradlin’s truck and others donating puppy food and offering to pay veterinary bills for Brittany.
Anyone looking to donate pet supplies or clothing for Stradlin and his puppy can deliver them to Davis’ house as 406 S. Union St. in Galion. For now, that’s also where George and Brittany have been stationed as they try to absorb the kindness coming their way.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Stradlin said. “That’s what’s called real friends.”
