Please help fellow SCCA member Alex Polimeni

[ajmr2]

Greetings. As the coordinator of the WDCR SCCA Racers Helping Racers Fund, I recently received this link from a racing buddy and thought it should be shared. Alex is a young man from a longtime WDCR racing family who has been a flagger in the region for many years and put together an excellent video for our banquet a couple years ago. Video and film production has been his passion for years. You'd recognize him by the pirate's hat he often wore.
He recently had a tragic accident which he was lucky to survive. I ran into him at the WDCR banquet in January and was very impressed with his positive "it is what it is" attitude.
Please take a moment to read his story and make a donation if you can. Alex is a member of our Family.
Looking forward to the 2013 season.
Thanks.
AJ
http://www.giveforward.com/handforalex

[phranquelynn]

bump for AJ for posting and hope more read about Alex and donate.

[Spa67]

I've known Alex for years. In fact it was Alex and his family that convinced me that with enough effort I could actually go racing. If you don't know Alex you may know his father Ron who raced for many years and his brother Nick who raced both ITB and Rally Cross with the WDCR-SCCA

He's an absolutely fantastic guy, one of the most genuine human beings I have ever met.

Hayes Lewis
Porsche 924
#6 ITB

[ajmr2]

Thanks for the bump. I'll take this opportunity to mention that if everyone who has viewed this post donated the equivalnet of a tank of fuel, he'd be a long way toward getting a new hand. At the moment the fund is at 8% and rising! :happy204:

[Kai Noeske]

Donation made ... :026: what an inspiring young man!

AJ, is this story and the donation link on the WDCR SCCA facebook page already? If not, it may reach more WDCR people that way - provided that Alex is fine with sharing it around the region, of course.

[ajmr2]

Thanks, Kai. I don't do FacePlant, but if you do and you know how to post it, that would be great. In fact, it would be great if anyone who wanted to at least spread the word would do so in their FB universe. No pun intended, Kai, but pretty good one, ya know?

:024:

[stevestratton]

AJ,

Glad you posted this. I hope I can help in some way with my donation and what I do with wounded warriors at Walter Reed.
Steve :023:

[ajmr2]

Steve. I just sent you a PM.

[rallyvolvo]

Alex's brother here. Wanted to say a big thank you for everyone who's shown their support for Alex. These words may be expected, but it really is humbling.

Just because I can, here's a pic of Alex back in '09 driving one of our ITB Volvo's on the Shenandoah circuit in a PDX. He'd raced karts, but this was his first time in a full size race car.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/11838_105322902812000_424761_n.jpg

[ajmr2]

I'm bumping this back up to the top. This opportunity expires on June 21. If everyone who looked at this post donated $75, we'd be there! I'd sure like to see Alex get a new hand, so please donate your tank of fuel!

:024:

[Abhi]

I'm bumping this back up to the top. This opportunity expires on June 21. If everyone who looked at this post donated $75, we'd be there! I'd sure like to see Alex get a new hand, so please donate your tank of fuel!

:024:

Art

Could you please post periodic updates as to how the fund is doing.

Everybody else... Please contribute. Like Art said, it's a tank of fuel.

Abhi

[rallyvolvo]

We are at 12% of our goal for my brother's prosthetic hand!

This is a message from my brother that he originally posted on a table top gaming community forum that he is heavily involved with, and I thought I'd re-post it here:

"I wish I had better words to express my gratitude, but since I don't... I guess a simple "thank you" will have to do for now.
At the moment, I'm doing well enough. My hand's healed well, and I finished physical therapy a long time ago. It'll be years before the internal damage sorts itself out, but I can tell that's improving already. It's been a really hard winter, with more than a little upheaval, but spring's coming and I'm making plans for a better year.
The fundraiser's surpassed $7K in less than 6 weeks, and while it's still short of what I'll need to become a cyborg, the outpouring of support I've received has been really humbling.
[This is] what I'm looking to get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JLE4Neh9FA
except mine's gonna be silver, none of that fake skin nonsense. Cyborg pride! More info here:
http://www.touchbionics.com/products/ac ... mb-digits/ (http://www.touchbionics.com/products/active-prostheses/i-limb-digits/)

Third, since it may still be years before I can afford this thing... I'm doing my best to work within the confines of my injury. This is a set of character studies I did a couple of weeks ago with my right hand, grasping the pencil between my thumb and index knuckle, and pivoting on my wrist resting against the page:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Aramir/Stuff/mick.png
It feels good to draw again, even if the method is different :)

So... yeah. Thank you, again, everyone.

-Alex"

[ajmr2]

Greetings. The fund is at $11,713, 16% of the goal. This fundraiser ends on June 21, 2013, a month from now, so please contribute your tank of fuel!
Thanks.
AJ

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/1hx1/handforalex

[rallyvolvo]

The fundraiser for my brother has been extended to August 1st, so there are still a few days left to contribute! We are now at just over $13K, or 17% of our goal. The site has been updated with an FAQ and related links as well.

Since funding a proper powered touch sensitive prosthetic is still a ways off, we are currently going to be working with a friend I met thru the rallycross community whom I recently learned has purchased a 3D printer. The plan is to use it to print out parts for an open source wrist powered prosthetic. This will obviously give him some abilities back, like being able to grasp a door knob, but is still going to be quite limited in what it can do.

Again, thank you to all who have donated or sent your thoughts our way!