Our close friend Mike Dawson and his family drove to Disney for the holidays. On the drive back going through the Carolinas, an hour away from their hotel, a drunk driver drove down an exit ramp and onto the highway and comes straight at them. His wife(Rebecca), himself and his two daughters swerved out of the way missing it by inches but his mother and sister in the car behind were not as fortunate. They were hit head-on with both vehicles travelling 110-120km/hr
This affected many in the Dawson/Lehman/Lakatos families.
Mike was first on the scene and managed to get his mom conscious while emergency crews had to cut open the car to remove his sister.
His mom is recovering and hopes that she may be able to be transported back to Ontario in a week or so.
His sister Jessy(pregnant) unfortunately passed away late in the evening on January 11, 2024. The family has donated her organs in hopes that they can help other family’s going through their own tragedy or complications.
Many of the families that flew down to South Carolina will stay until Sunday to be able to support them while they can, then will have to fly home and try to cope from here while Mike stays in South Carolina with his brother and aunt.
To say these expenses of hotels/food/last minute flights for his family to get home, some family not being able to work for possibly a month or months, they need some help and that’s why we are here.
Medical expenses for his family are all covered under their health insurance.
So this is my ask of this group.
1- we are asking anyone with the ability to help throw any funds their way, to etransfer info@burlingtondads.com (mailto:info@burlingtondads.com) or bid on auction items in support.
All funds sent will go directly to each member of the family incurring costs due to this unthinkable tragedy. We aren’t just here to support Mike and his immediate family, but also support Jessy’s Fiancé Norbert, her siblings Matt, Jayme, Pam and all others that travelled to South Carolina to be their and support.
3- Pray. Keep him and his family in your thoughts
Times are tough for everyone and we realize this. There isn’t a good time for this type of thing to happen, but when it does, this is why we are Dads Helping Others.
Not the way we wanted 2024 to start.