Can I ask you for a donation?

When I first moved to DC I knew no one. This was way before getting back to volleyball and meeting new people on a weekly basis. So all I did was hang out at my building's pool. After work. All day on weekends. So much so that I became friends with the Czech lifeguards (I had such a crush in one of them...), and then became friends with their friends, and by the end of the season, I could pretty much go to any pool in NoVa or even in DC and get in with no problems. It was awesome!

Of course, the end of the season came and little by little they all went back home. A couple of them stayed behind. One of them, Tomas, remained a close friend until he met a girl who swept him off his feet and they got hitched. He is still one of the sweetest guys I know.

We had been bad at keeping in touch, but just found each other again. Unfortunately, things are not going so well for his family... In February, his wife, Lenka, was walking their dogs in Glover Park, and a tree branch fell from a rotten tree, and landed on top of her. She ripped her kidney and broke her back, and if it he wasn't there, she might not have gotten to the hospital in time and would not have survived.

Tomas said how when he left his job to open his own business last November, he had opted to extend their medical insurance (I guess he means COBRA?), but no records have been found of that, and as much as he fought with the insurance company, his coverage was never extended.

Now, they can't get insurance either, as her condition is considered a pre-existing medical condition. Her medical bills have added up to a quarter of a million, and she is still under treatment, and under incredible pain. He is trying to sue the city, because despite being an "act of God" if the park was maintained properly (as in the rotten tree was cut before branches fell off), that would not have happened. If he loses the lawsuit, his only option is to declare bankruptcy, which he wants to avoid, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, one of his friends set up this little donation site here. I doubt he will be able to get the whole amount he needs (and even though the donation link has a goal of less than 10% of his current hospital bills, it is still unlikely that he will reach that goal). Said that, if any of you can go and chip in, even if only 5 bucks, every little bit helps. Pass the link along as well.

Tomas and Lenka are two wonderful people who have been married 2 years and are going through something no one deserves to go through. (The picture on the donation page is from their wedding day, at a beach in Hawaii.)

Thanks for reading...