Cleveland High School dedicated its first home game, a 48-14 victory over Miyamura High Thursday evening, at Rio Rancho Stadium to the Jarrod Truesdale family of Rio Rancho.

Truesdale is the man who was killed by lightning on July 4, only a few hundred yards east of the stadium, as he and his family returned to their car when a thunderstorm came up during festivities at Loma Colorado Park.

His widow, Jessica, was in a coma and in critical condition for more than a month at University Hospital in Albuquerque, but was  recently transferred to a hospital in Denver for rehabilitation. To help her children and other family members travel to and from that hospital, CHS football boosters “passed the helmet” during the game.

The donated money wasn’t counted, CHS booster club president Michael Cooke said, merely handed over to the family, which had several members at the game — “Jarrod’s parents, Jessica’s father and two sons (were there),” Cooke said. Not all the Truesdale children came, Cooke said. “They still have issues with the weather (after the July 4 experience).”

“They need help going back and forth to Denver to see the mom,” Cooke said. “She actually was able to call (Wednesday) and talk to the kids on the phone.”

Cooke and the booster club, which helped the Greg and Kim Hayes family in its time of need — their son, 13-year-old Corbin, drowned in the Rio Grande in May — “were all out there in that same storm … on the Fourth of July,” he said.

“I was holding onto the corner of a metal tent — It struck real close. It came out of nowhere and I’m sure the Truesdales got hit with that first strike — there were at least three that hit near the school. It was terrible. When lightning hit on the campus, that’s when things got hairy.”

Cooke said he believes the proceeds will help pay for airline fare.

“Plane tickets provide the quickest way for the children to go back and forth, allowing them more time with their mother,” he said. “The Cleveland High School football boosters are proud and honored to be able to help our community in this fashion.”

Helping families in their time of need is a well-intentioned gesture, he said.

“It helped define Rio Rancho. We’re not just a bedroom community anymore, we’re being proud of who we are and doing things for our own people,” Cooke, a resident here for about five years, said.