STRUTHERS Benefit to help man get prosthetic leg

Jerry Fye needs about $20,000 more for the leg.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Paying forward is what 23-year-old Jerry Fye will be doing for the rest of his life.
Earlier this year, the 2000 Hubbard High School graduate and Greenwood Chevrolet service technician was in a horrific car accident that left him in a coma for over two weeks with his left leg amputated to the hip and more than $400,000 in medical bills.
Fye is among the more than 40 million Americans who don't have health insurance, which means not only does he have a lifetime of payment ahead of him but he's unable to afford a modern prosthetic leg that will allow him to go back to work.
"Believe me, if it was up to me, I'd be back to work yesterday," Fye said. "It's just I can't go back yet. I just have a temporary leg right now that I'm getting used to and it's real hard to maneuver around and basically it's like a steel pole with a joint in it, that's it. It limits my mobility a lot."
But what Fye does have in his corner is a caring community, which has come together to help this young man to literally get back on his feet.
'Awesome kid'
"Jerry is an awesome kid," said "Stand Up For Jerry" Foundation Co-Chairman Teri Simon.
"He's a hard worker. His family is just down-home people, good people. He had scholarships to go play football but he chose to stay home and help his family out and work. He's smart and it was just a tragic thing. But he just deserves to be able to live and have a life like you and I. And to get married and have kids and walk around and run if he wants to."
So far, the committee has raised more than $40,000 after recently auctioning a Hummer donated by Greenwood Hummer, but the cost of a state-of-the-art computerized leg is in the $60,000 range. So the foundation has scheduled a special benefit for Fye.
"Stand Up For Jerry" takes place Wednesday at The Cellar and features a performance by Hubbard's own The Hern Brothers.
Fye and his family are completely taken back by the area's outpouring of good will.
"The community has been so wonderful and has come together," said Fye's sister Sheree Moore. "We had no help and no way of getting help and the 'Stand up For Jerry' committee came together and has conquered mountains for us."
She added, "There is no way to thank them monetarily. They just need to know that it comes directly from our heart and we're going to pay forward wherever we can, whenever we can.
"Anything we can do in the future to help anyone, we will. It's a personal goal of ours to help others that are in need as well."
Optimistic
It's obvious that Fye's wealth comes not from bank riches but from his friends and family. An A student at the New Castle School of Trades, from which he graduated top tech in his class, the young man takes nothing for granted.
"It's the greatest thing ever," Fye said. "I could never imagine all of these people pulling together for me. I've always tried to help everybody out and do what I can for everybody and I'm finally getting it in return and it feels great. You give and receive."
Speaking to Fye's good-natured personality is a sense of optimism at a time most people would assume would be his darkest.
"I'm fine," Fye said. "I'm not going to let this beat me. You have to play the hand you're dealt, and this probably isn't going to be the hardest thing in my life to go through."