DECATUR — Jump Start June’s Heart, a benefit chili supper and auction to help June Walls with medical expenses, will be held at the Decatur Northside Elementary School on April 9.

June is in need of a heart transplant after suffering from several heart attacks and related complications over the past year. She is currently on a transplant list at St. Judes Hospital in Kansas City, according to Kayla Ellison, who is helping organize the benefit.

The entire Walls family is in need of community support, Ellison said. June’s mother, Bernice, has recently been faced with serious medical problems as well, she said.

June has been a big part of the Decatur community for many years. She attended Decatur Schools from kindergarten until she graduated in 1992, where she participated in many extra curricular activities including basketball and cheer leading.

June was very involved in pageants and modeled for Seventeen and Glamour magazine. She held several titles, including Miss Decatur Barbecue, and has continued as the director of the Decatur Barbecue Pageant for the past eight years.

June has worked for Decatur Schools for more than 10 years in both the elementary and middle school, where she taught elementary art, was a seventh grade basketball coach, a cheer leading coach and kept the basketball books for 10 years. June has also worked at the swimming pools in both Decatur and Gravette for several years.

The chili supper will begin at 4 p.m., April 9, at the Decatur Northside Elementary School cafeteria. Dwayne Craig and Rob Hopkins will serve as auctioneers for the benefit auction which will begin at 7 p.m.

Benefit organizers are welcoming donations of desserts or new items for the auction.

“We’d like to invite everyone to come. If they can’t come, maybe they can just donate,” Ellison said.

For more information, contact Vicki Smith, Margo Barnes or Kayla Ellison at the Decatur Northside Elementary School, 752-3981. Updates are also available on the benefit’s Facebook page, titled, “Jump Start June’s Heart.”

News, Pages 2 on 03/16/2011