Thank You!

Well, it's been just over three months since our son Nick lost his left leg in a freak accident. Our family has been leaning on each other and leaning on many of our friends, like no other time in our lives. How does one go about thanking literally hundreds of people for their visits, phone calls, donations, and assistance to make Nick's life as normal as possible during this life transition? Sometimes the only thing is to simply say the words, "Thank you!"

During his 17 day stay in the hospital late in May, Nick's sister Sam started a GoFundMe page, mainly as a central information spot to keep everyone informed of his status. What came from it, however, was truly humbling. To date, nearly $8000 has been donated from Nick's friends and our family's friends! All of this money is sitting safely in an account, while we assess what his immediate needs will be. Among those needs are of course a prosthetic leg, but he must wait until his residual limb is completely healed. There are many doctor and hospital bills that we are still waiting to slowly shake down to what we owe after insurance. There is also a great need for getting him a larger, more accessible vehicle for him to get to school and eventually back to work. As fate would have it, his previous car was totaled in a hail storm just weeks prior to his fall. To all the people who contributed to this fund, some of them anonymously, we say "Thank you!"

Just a week or so after getting Nick home with us, he was asked to come back into work for a staff meeting at iPie in Wheat Ridge. Nick was excited to go, as he had not seen his co-workers for quite a while. I drove him over to the meeting and quietly sat in on it. What I found in that room was an amazing group of young men and women who were truly invested not only in making their store operate more smoothly each and every day, but also invested in each other. Towards the end of the meeting, the manager (also named Nick) announced that their monthly fund raiser in August was to be a benefit for Nick! My eyes swelled up and spilled over with gratitude. They would be donating 10π%, or 31.4% of one day's earnings at the store! Not long after this announcement, a friend I just barely knew on Facebook and Twitter reached out to me and asked if he could help promote the fundraiser. Using tools at his disposal at Name.com, he created a video that quickly rose to over 13,000 views on Facebook, telling everybody how they could help Nick get back on his feet by simply eating pizza! This man's name is Jared Ewy, he is amazing and I am eternally grateful to him. With Jared's help and the power crew at iPie, they raised nearly $2000 that day! ~$1200 was raised from the pizza sales, ~$500 was raised from a cash donation/tip jar, and ~$250 came from the sales of custom pizza jewelry and key chains made by one of Nick's iPie co-workers, Quinn. To the Crouse family (iPie owners), the iPie staff, and to Jared, we offer another gigantic "Thank you!"

I must also give a big shout out to my brother-in-law, Mike Pahl, who helped with a very important project just one day before Nick was to be discharged from the hospital. Without his help installing strong new handrails on our entry stairs, Nick would have no way to get into our home. After several hours of careful measuring, cutting, and fastening, the rails were ready. Nick quickly developed the method for getting up and down the stairs using the rails and his freedom was maintained. Having the ability to leave the house and go visit with his friends whenever he wants to is real key to his well being and undying positive attitude. So to Mike we say, "Thank you!"

For everyone else not named here specifically, Nick's friends, my friends, my wife's friends, my other kids' friends, my co-workers, I want you all to know that my family and I are forever grateful to you for keeping Nick in your hearts. We couldn't get through this without you! "Thank you!"