LOOSELEAF LAUREATE: A special event for a special former officer

For more than 25 years, Jonathan Foust was a special kind of trooper — one of those rare officers who was so polite you were likely to thank him for the speeding ticket he handed you.

“He never saw a person he didn’t like. He was always ready to do what was asked of him,” said Trooper Teresa Brown, who not only worked with Foust on the Tennessee Highway Patrol, but she also graduated from Rockwood High School with him.

“That’s the kind of person he was,” Brown said. Now she and others want to find out what kind of people we are.

Foust, 58, was forced to retire last year because of medical reasons.

His liver had been failing him, even though, friends say, he led a healthy lifestyle. And now a spot of cancer has been found on his liver. Time is not on his side.

If there is any good news in the cancer, however, it is that he has been moved up to No. 3 on the list to receive a donor liver. Sure, Foust has medical coverage, but any major medical procedure can come with huge out-of-pocket costs.

In his case, he’ll likely have to spend a long period at Vanderbilt Medical Center, and his wife, Arlene, will need to stay off the medical campus.

Foust also would need to remain close to Vanderbilt, even after he is released after a transplant, for an extended period of close monitoring.

Here’s how we can help Foust: Friends have put together a fundraiser for Saturday, June 4, from noon to 4 p.m. at the THP office and Driver’s License Center at 1070 N. Gateway in Rockwood.

There will be live music, including Chill Factor, which features drummer Buster Phillips who once played with Ronnie Milsap. The cost for this is $5, although children under 12 can get in free.

Bring lawn chairs and umbrellas, if the weather is iffy, and come hungry. There will be a bake sale, hot dogs, barbecue and more. There will also be an auction.

Foust has been through a lot, but Brown is hoping his positive attitude, along with some luck and help from the community, will make it possible for him to be able to attend their RHS 40th reunion.

Here’s hoping that wish will come true.