CHESTERVILLE – Townspeople are rallying around Orin Knowles and Greg Soule on Saturday with a benefit supper to help defray their medical and other expenses. Both men suffered broken legs in accidents two days apart this fall.

The spaghetti dinner begins at 4:30 p.m. at the town hall. Nobody will be turned away, said Cindy Whittier, an organizer. The cost is a donation.

Soule, 58, a shop manager mechanic with the Farmington Public Works Department, is recovering from injuries after being struck by a tree Sept. 25 in his yard. A relative was cutting down a large pine tree and it didn’t fall in the direction it was expected to, and Soule was hit.

He received a broken leg, a crushed ankle and a compressed fracture in his back, Soule said.

“I guess my leg was planted and it went the wrong way when it was struck,” he said.

He had pins and a plate put in his leg and uses a wheelchair or a walker to get around.

“I can’t do much of anything – read, watch TV and crossword puzzles – and I spend a lot of time in bed because sitting bothers my back,” Soule said.

The town is fortunate to have first responders, he added.

“I have very high praise for the (Chesterville Fire & Rescue) first responders. They helped stabilize me and calm people that were there. I’m very impressed with their professionalism, and I’m glad we have something like that in town to help us when we need it,” Soule said.

Knowles, 73, broke his leg in a fall at the home of his daughter Julia Galusha of Chesterville on Sept. 27, according to Diane Mayberry of Chesterville, another daughter.

He had a rod and three pins inserted in it and is recovering at Edgewood Manor nursing home in Farmington.

“Dad is anxious to get home,” she said, but he needs a ramp built to his house first and that effort has begun.

“We appreciate the Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff for getting the permit through expediently for a ramp,” Mayberry said Thursday night.

Mayberry said her father broke both his legs when he was hit by a car at age 6.

The former town constable is retired from Forster’s Manufacturing after 34 years, most of that time working as a driver, Mayberry said.

“We are very grateful for first responders,” she said, and appreciative of the visits, cards and other support from the town, friends and neighbors.

The Chesterville Fire & Rescue, town officials, community members, Chesterville Extension, the Grange and church members are among the volunteers working together to put the supper on, Whittier said.

Anyone wishing to help or who needs more information may contact Whittier at 778-3078.