For 10 years, George Doxtader has taken a seat on a bench at State and Main streets in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and given a thumbs-up to everyone who passes. Sometimes he arrives at 4 a.m. He steps away for church, then returns. On the Suncoast, we know the type: the regular on the Venice pier, the snowbird who waves from the same beach chair every winter. Every community has that person, and Eaton Rapids has George.
What makes his routine stand out is the road he took to get there. Two major strokes 35 years ago left him with right-side paralysis and difficulty speaking. He crochets blankets and pictures one-handed with his left hand, and his friend Kurt Norgaard says he simply keeps showing up. Drivers honk and call out his name, and Pastor Jenny Rouble at First Congregational Church says people ask after him whenever he is away from his corner.
So the guy on the bench has become the heartbeat of his town, and it cost him nothing but showing up. It makes you think about the people who brighten your own corner of Sarasota or Manatee County. Who is the person your neighborhood would notice missing? Tell us on our Facebook page, and maybe go tell them in person.
