Benefit for Norwich man exceeds expectations and raises more than $3,000
NORWICH – A benefit for Shawn Witherow was held this past Sunday, Aug. 30 from noon until 4 p.m. at the Howard Johnson's Ballroom, which was donated by Dana Meyer-Gross, at Howard Johnson's.
“We raised a little more than $3000 at the benefit and the Go Fund Me is now over $1000,” said Celeste Bloomingdale, manager at Gus' Steak House and mother of her and Shawn's son, Cordell Witherow.
Shawn Witherow, 38, of Norwich, and a Norwich High School graduate in 1995, was involved in a bicycle accident on June 17, 2015.
“The ambulance service was here in less than like eight minutes, I heard the sirens coming basically before I even hung up the phone. People don’t give our local EMS crew enough credit, they were great,” said Denise Krygier, Shawn’s girlfriend of eight years.
The accident occurred when Shawn road his bicycle up onto a teeter-totter device designed for bike tricks. While on the device, it twisted causing Shawn to lose his balance and fall. Due to the impact of the fall, Shawn needed to be airlifted to Upstate Hospital in Syracuse where they discovered he had compressed his spine.
Shawn has since been diagnosed with central cord syndrome, which the recovery time for is approximately one year.
“He is regaining strength and movement every day, but is in need of our community's help,” said Bloomingdale.
Shawn was an avid trail rider on his free time off from working as the Manager for Save-A-Lot, where he has been for 17 years.
The injury left Shawn in a paraplegic state with minimal movement in his limbs for the first couple of weeks following the accident. Shawn has undergone one surgery, but still has a two more scheduled. He has been home for sometime and drives back and fourth to Syracuse a couple of times a week for intense physical therapy. These past weeks he apparently has started going to the local YMCA with his son 16-year-old son Cordell Witherow, in order to utilize their exercise equipment for rehab purposes.
“It really put everyone’s life on hold, we have a three kids between us, a 16-year-old (Cordell Witherow), 10-year-old (Londynn Krygier), and a 9-year-old (Dawson Krygier), so it was really hard on them as well” said Denise Krygier.
Therefore, following the creation of a Go Fund Me page once things settled down some, it was decided to also try to continue to raise the much-needed funds by having this benefit.
“The benefit was amazing. There were approximately 200 people that came throughout the day. Just a lot of support,” said Bloomingdale.
The benefit featured: Master Zumba for adults, which was done by Maria Fernandez along with Ariel Wich and Zoe Curtis as well as Zumba for children provided by Samantha Valashinas; Face painting, which was done by Denise Krygier; a balloon artist, which was Chelsea Law; Ike Blackman was at the event barbequing the chicken all day long; Shawn's best friend since high school, Chris Carnachan, as well as Jason George, provided the music for the benefit. Patty, the hot dog lady, who worked for Shawn at save-a-lot even had a collection jar for him at her stand collecting a little over $85.
“I wanted to add that Sarah Potter, my really good friend, made and donated more than 200 homemade cupcakes for dessert. Also, my employees at Gus' Steak House have been very supportive and sold a lot of raffle tickets at the restaurant for the event, while they also put money together and donated a couple of baskets,” said Bloomingdale.
The Unadilla Fire Department was also contacted as an idea, and ended up donating their dunk tank. As well as everything mentioned above, the event feature a Chinese Auction in an effort to raise more money. The raffle featured two main items, a kayak, and a tiki bar.
“Patty Dietrich was especially really helpful; she helped so much and was basically Celeste’s right hand man through it all. I want to also thank my good friend Eileen Dorsey, who did most of the tickets sales and helped put together baskets for the event,” said Krygier.
A Facebook event page was created named Benefit for Shawn Witherow. https://www.facebook.com/events/410294575840859/
There is a Go Fund Me page that was created which has been shared a total of 85 times. Before the event this past Sunday, the go fund me page had only raised $675 (of the total goal of $5,000). Now the Go Fund Me page is at $1,130 in just the past month, and continues to grow each day. http://www.gofundme.com/f72a7xczc
“I saw people’s faces there at this event that I had never seen before, as well as people I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Of course our family and friends were there helping but the event and the community exceeded my expectations. I honestly didn’t know people were that amazing,” said Krygier.
“Shawn wanted to thank the community and everyone who helped make this event possible, or had helped in any way. Our parents and family have been amazing through this all. And you don’t want to leave anyone out, so I apologize if I do, but there were just so many people who helped and that was really what so great, it was so impressive,” said Krygier.
Any donation would be appreciated. Check out the Go Fund Me page linked above or for any further information please contact Celeste Bloomingdale at: 607-727-5129 or Gus' Steakhouse at: 607-336-4777.
“We raised a little more than $3000 at the benefit and the Go Fund Me is now over $1000,” said Celeste Bloomingdale, manager at Gus' Steak House and mother of her and Shawn's son, Cordell Witherow.
Shawn Witherow, 38, of Norwich, and a Norwich High School graduate in 1995, was involved in a bicycle accident on June 17, 2015.
“The ambulance service was here in less than like eight minutes, I heard the sirens coming basically before I even hung up the phone. People don’t give our local EMS crew enough credit, they were great,” said Denise Krygier, Shawn’s girlfriend of eight years.
The accident occurred when Shawn road his bicycle up onto a teeter-totter device designed for bike tricks. While on the device, it twisted causing Shawn to lose his balance and fall. Due to the impact of the fall, Shawn needed to be airlifted to Upstate Hospital in Syracuse where they discovered he had compressed his spine.
Shawn has since been diagnosed with central cord syndrome, which the recovery time for is approximately one year.
“He is regaining strength and movement every day, but is in need of our community's help,” said Bloomingdale.
Shawn was an avid trail rider on his free time off from working as the Manager for Save-A-Lot, where he has been for 17 years.
The injury left Shawn in a paraplegic state with minimal movement in his limbs for the first couple of weeks following the accident. Shawn has undergone one surgery, but still has a two more scheduled. He has been home for sometime and drives back and fourth to Syracuse a couple of times a week for intense physical therapy. These past weeks he apparently has started going to the local YMCA with his son 16-year-old son Cordell Witherow, in order to utilize their exercise equipment for rehab purposes.
“It really put everyone’s life on hold, we have a three kids between us, a 16-year-old (Cordell Witherow), 10-year-old (Londynn Krygier), and a 9-year-old (Dawson Krygier), so it was really hard on them as well” said Denise Krygier.
Therefore, following the creation of a Go Fund Me page once things settled down some, it was decided to also try to continue to raise the much-needed funds by having this benefit.
“The benefit was amazing. There were approximately 200 people that came throughout the day. Just a lot of support,” said Bloomingdale.
The benefit featured: Master Zumba for adults, which was done by Maria Fernandez along with Ariel Wich and Zoe Curtis as well as Zumba for children provided by Samantha Valashinas; Face painting, which was done by Denise Krygier; a balloon artist, which was Chelsea Law; Ike Blackman was at the event barbequing the chicken all day long; Shawn's best friend since high school, Chris Carnachan, as well as Jason George, provided the music for the benefit. Patty, the hot dog lady, who worked for Shawn at save-a-lot even had a collection jar for him at her stand collecting a little over $85.
“I wanted to add that Sarah Potter, my really good friend, made and donated more than 200 homemade cupcakes for dessert. Also, my employees at Gus' Steak House have been very supportive and sold a lot of raffle tickets at the restaurant for the event, while they also put money together and donated a couple of baskets,” said Bloomingdale.
The Unadilla Fire Department was also contacted as an idea, and ended up donating their dunk tank. As well as everything mentioned above, the event feature a Chinese Auction in an effort to raise more money. The raffle featured two main items, a kayak, and a tiki bar.
“Patty Dietrich was especially really helpful; she helped so much and was basically Celeste’s right hand man through it all. I want to also thank my good friend Eileen Dorsey, who did most of the tickets sales and helped put together baskets for the event,” said Krygier.
A Facebook event page was created named Benefit for Shawn Witherow. https://www.facebook.com/events/410294575840859/
There is a Go Fund Me page that was created which has been shared a total of 85 times. Before the event this past Sunday, the go fund me page had only raised $675 (of the total goal of $5,000). Now the Go Fund Me page is at $1,130 in just the past month, and continues to grow each day. http://www.gofundme.com/f72a7xczc
“I saw people’s faces there at this event that I had never seen before, as well as people I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Of course our family and friends were there helping but the event and the community exceeded my expectations. I honestly didn’t know people were that amazing,” said Krygier.
“Shawn wanted to thank the community and everyone who helped make this event possible, or had helped in any way. Our parents and family have been amazing through this all. And you don’t want to leave anyone out, so I apologize if I do, but there were just so many people who helped and that was really what so great, it was so impressive,” said Krygier.
Any donation would be appreciated. Check out the Go Fund Me page linked above or for any further information please contact Celeste Bloomingdale at: 607-727-5129 or Gus' Steakhouse at: 607-336-4777.
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