Thank you to El Dorado County

EDITOR:

In this season of giving and hope, our family would like to take the opportunity to thank the people of El Dorado County for the amazing support that has been given to us. On Aug. 5, our son Zach suffered a spinal cord injury in a diving accident, which changed the course of our lives forever. We are thankful for the quick action of the lifeguards on duty, the speediness of the Cameron Park Fire Department and the skills of the incredible staff at UCD Medical Center. Each of these folks made a huge difference in the severity of his injury. The outpouring of prayers and support for our family has been astonishing; we have felt your love and we are so grateful. The journey that Zach is on, was unexpected and unwelcome, but many blessings have come out of it. We often hear of the negative things going on in this world, but we have experienced nothing but heartfelt kindness and generosity for our family.

We have numerous people to thank and I would just like to take an opportunity to recognize some of them. We would like to thank Cindy Poipao for her amazing job organizing the spaghetti feed, the Knights of Columbus from Holy Trinity for cooking the food, over 100 volunteers who helped serve dinner to the 1,500 people who came and supported our family. We want to thank Dino and Gayleen Pelicano who have done a tremendous job organizing the Laps for Zach swim-a-thon and other fundraisers; as well as the volunteers from the Sierra Sharks, Aquasol and teams of the Suburban Swim League. The swim-a-thon would not have been a success without Olympians Alyssa and Haley Anderson as well as all the swimmers from near and far, that participated. We are thankful to Rick Poipao and RCP Construction for the beautiful job they did on the remodel of our home. Zach has complete access now and we were able to move back to our home on Thanksgiving, 108 days after the accident. Special thanks to Barbara Ashwell for the donation of her van that has been and absolute Godsend (we have driven over 5,000 miles so far).

Throughout these past four months, we have witnessed the pure love and kindness of people like never before. Family, friends and community members have surrounded us with their prayers and generous well wishes and we have been so humbled. We are thankful to Rolling Hills Middle School, Camerado Springs Middle School, Ponderosa High School, Oak Ridge High School, Chicago Fire Pizza, Yogaberry and many others who have generously supported us. We continue forward by focusing on the the progress that Zach has made and the good that is around us. We know that God has blessed us tremendously and will continue to do so in the coming year. Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2013!

TOD, JUDY, KYLE, RYAN and ZACH PICKETT
Cameron Park