Pelican Parts Forums - Recovery fund for Shaun

All,
As you may have read here, http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/692737-shaun-wreck.html, one of our longtime contributors, Shaun Budka, was in a terrible car wreck this weekend. He has sustained cerebral hemorrhaging, a broken pelvis, and a dislocated hip, among lots of other minor damage. His station wagon was completely destroyed (65mph head-on collision with stationary object - even a W124 Benz couldn't survive that).

If you have been around this board any length of time at all, chances are that Shaun has done you a favor. He's sent out free or almost-free car parts to many of us. He's sent free clothing for our kids from his business. And perhaps most noteworthy of all, he actually organized the surprise rebuilding of another member's totaled 911 track car. If memory serves, that member was between jobs at the time and funds weren't available to replace the car, and it was a bitter loss to suffer.

To keep the good karma flowing, I'd like to help Shaun get back on his feet. Shaun is in many ways a one-man show at his business, and he has been blessed each season with orders larger than the last. The downside of this is that each season, he has been reinvesting every dime of cash flow back into the business, mostly to fund production. He's going to need some cash to help with his recovery. I'm calling upon everyone to contribute, any amount will help. Hopefully the funds raised can help him get a new car, get some rehab/physical therapy, hire some extra help, whatever his needs may be.

I've set up a paypal fund to collect funds; just click the button below. Every dime (less paypal fees) will go directly to Shaun. It would be great if we could raise $5K or more to help him get on his feet. Any amount will help, but in the spirit of Shaun's occasional t-shirt sales here, I'm requesting at least $25. Thanks again, and I'll post daily updates on our fundraising progress. I'll start us off with $100 into the pot.

(link removed - goal met and exceeded - thanks so much to all the pelicans!)

Update, 8.7.12 9:30 AM EST
This morning Shaun will have another MRI to determine if the bleeding has stopped in his brain. If so, he might get released today. Then will begin the task of rehabilitation. Though he is much more coherent now, his brain is still not fully cooperating and it is going to take time before he's running on all his batteries again.

The fundraising went great last night, and I just hope we can keep this pace up for a while. Thank you all for your generosity. Shaun's Mac laptop miraculously survived the wreck and was recovered, so he may check in here at Pelican soon. I'd like to keep the fundraising totals a surprise for him, so if anyone would like to know the current total, shoot me a PM.

Update, 8.7.12 9:45 PM EST
Thank you so much for the continued donations. The paypal notification emails have been pouring in today. We are making a meaningful impact here. I didn't get to talk to Shaun today, but he texted me and is headed straight to bed. Before he went to bed, he emailed me these :eek:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1344389441.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1344389483.jpg

Update, 8.10.12 12 PM EST
All,
This has been a phenomenal experience to be a part of. We have raised far more money than I had thought possible. In less than 5 short days, we have raised over $9,000! This is almost double the working goal of $5K that I had established, and will net over $8,800 for Shaun after paypal fees. These funds will primarily be used to replace the W124 wagon and cover some of the miscellaneous medical and other costs related to the wreck. I also hope Shaun buys a new car charger for his cel phone, which has been MIA since the accident :). I did inform Shaun last night of what we’ve done, and he is completely overwhelmed. I will let him express himself when he’s ready; I won’t say anything further, except that he is completely blown away and still processing this. What I told him is that this is not a charity case, just a karmic repayment (though we are going to expect pics of his new ride). Many of the contributors have posted, PM’d, or emailed with stories about the things Shaun has done to help them out. Some of the best stories aren’t even public information on this board, but they’re just more accounts of what we already know.

Thank you so much to everyone who has participated, whether you sent along a word of encouragement, a prayer, and/or a donation. The worst is over for Shaun but the recovery is going to take months, and as he tries to cope with what happened, the threads here on Pelican are going to help him out a lot.

At this time I am going to remove the links to the donation fund as I believe we have accomplished much more than we expected. Thanks again to everyone – you guys are the best.
-dtw