this may help..

Injured man counts blessings
Friends and strangers aiding Hales



10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, May 14, 2006
By MARLENE TOSCANO
The Press-Enterprise



RIVERSIDE - Jon Hales said his and his family's lives changed forever on March 16.

He had been riding a motorcycle with friends in Moreno Valley when a wheel snagged on a rock. He was thrown over the handlebars and landed facedown, chin pinned to his neck.

Hales said his first thought was that his neck was broken.

He said his second thought was about Jesus Christ, and after that, he was at peace, he said.

The accident obliterated the C5 vertebrae, which controls most motor skills, said Sheldon McGee, one of the friends who was with Hales the day of the accident.

Though he had been told that the accident had paralyzed him from the neck down, Hales can shake a hand and move his shoulders.

He left Loma Linda Medical Center on Wednesday.

Students from a seminary class Hales taught at his Mormon church and McGee helped make Hales' home wheelchair-accessible, stripping carpet, ripping up tile and laying down hardwood flooring.

Support from friends, family and church members extends beyond the community of Orangecrest, where Hales, his wife, Christina, and their four girls, Rachel, 8, Sarah, 6, Anna, 3, and Rebecca, 18 months, live.

Through friends and family, word of Hales reached the likes of actor Henry Winkler and Pittsburgh Steelers football player Ben Roethlisberger, who each donated items for a fundraiser at Orange Terrace Community Park, event organizer Celesta McGee said.

With a smile, Hales recalled a woman whose car broke down in front of his home before the accident.

She saw a flier about the fundraiser and showed up, remembering the young man who had offered to help her. Almost 500 people attended.

"Sometimes, it's tough to think of this experience as a terrible thing ... because of the overwhelming love and support that has been shown to our family. In that regard, it's been a blessing in our lives," he said.

Reach Marlene Toscano at (951) 368-9660 or mtoscano@PE.com.