After serving the city of Easley, SC for almost 30 years, Jason-fondly known as Breadman- is in need of critical surgery on his neck. A recent fall has caused the manageable pain to become life altering. Due to the nature of the injury/underlying condition, he is at risk to becoming permanently paralyzed with even a minor tweak or hit. After surgery, recovery time away from work will be between 3 and 6 months. The life of a breadman is very demanding: once upon a time his day started around 3am and depending on the number of customers lasting until 4pm with no lunch break, no PTO, no sick days plus a breadman loads his own truck...and thankfully now all the bread fits behind his door...but for a number of years he would have to get the overflow from across the warehouse stack by stack with his faithful handtruck. One loaf of bread is light...but imagine 9 loaves of dense Daves Killer Bread in one tray! I couldn't even imagine the millions of loaves the Jason has handled over the years! Once the bread is loaded on Flash <our beloved breadtruck!> Jason drives to Easley,SC to start the delivery day. There are a few grocery/retail stops as well as many restaurants along the route. Check for back stock and pull any bread that is approaching the out of code date [i will let you in on a little secret- Jason has always kept bread as fresh as possible and often pulls before this time as he believes that everyone should taste the freshest bread he can provide] then he goes back to Flash to prepare what needs to be delivered. At restaurants he may not need to generate a large variety of stock, be be assured he does not over sell. So many times Ive heard that he gets the order near perfect because he respects the cost of carryover inventory! And how many times has he or I run a few trays or loaves to get by until next delivery?? I cant even say--maybe not as much since we live so much farther away...but we still do what we can! Many days, part of working restaurants includes restacking trays becasue they were not done so by the stop...but he has never complained or refused to pick up empties. Once all the deliveries have been made, empty trays picked up it is time to return to White Horse Road depot to unload all the empties and check in stale to the thrift store. This is a very basic day in the life of...but it is all manual labor that adds up to many aches and pains over the years. Most breadman are not able to maintain the level of service for as long as this Breadman! Jason is absolutely an exception to the rule proudly serving the Easley community through many storms, hurricanes, ice and snow--if there was bread sitting at the warehouse, nothing stopped Jason from making his delivery! Big Yellow...rest in peace-- was even featured on a snow day newscast as it was sliding along HWY 123! When early in January of 2014 Big Yellow was missing-- he showed up to load his truck and Big Yellow was STOLEN, he found a way to get every store and restaurant what he had ordered.

I am asking everyone who has been impacted by this dedicated man to look at anything you can contribute to ease the burden of medical and living expenses as well as paying someone to run the route as he recovers. Unfortunately there is no relief driver provided to cover medical leaves with route ownership. Due to a series of unfortunate events I am out of work at this time and with that loss of employment is the additional loss of employer funded insurance coverage. We have no option but to pay out of pocket for COBRA insurance. I do not know the exact monthly amount, but I can only estimate it will be $1500 monthly. Anyone who has been in this situation knkws that without continuous coverage, everything becomes pre-existing for at least a year so no choice but to use this option. I am looking high and low to find a job with benefits to continue working with the passion God gave me for animal care! Until then, I trust that this is just part of His plan to be available for Jason in any capacity on the route, at home etc.

Jason has donated so many times to anyone who asks--it is time to help take care of him.

A few things about Jason "Breadman" Fowler

you may not know

-Jason's dream is to fill his truck with toys at Christmas and help all those who do not have anything under the tree. I have always wanted to help make this dream come true-we need your help so that we can make this dream come true.

-He loves the Florida Gators...OK everyone knows that!

-He loves being in the woods on a off road vehicle of any sort

-whitewater rafting is his favorite form of exercise! We are so glad we finally got to see Pillow Rock laat year and had the most epic Gauley trip imaginable

-He loves his Mama Beagle and all our furr family (and sadly 2 days after this accident we had to send Maddie Grace across the rainbow bridge)

All these things and so much more is why we need your help to get him healthy and back to living life without the fear of falling and not getting up ever again.

The surgery that Jason will undergo is a fusion at 3 levels in the cervical (neck) spine. He has severe degeneration caused by years of wear and tear that is now pushing on the nerves to the point that he is suffering debilitating nerve pain in the hands along with loss of fine motor skills. Left unchecked, eventually the nerves will stop sending signals and he will lose the function in his hands. A year ago we knew if was getting bad, but the fall in March left him completely paralyzed for about 10 minutes. When I got to him, I honestly thought he was gone. That is something I was not prepared to ever witness. With the help of many doctors and friends, he is able to walk and do a few things now however, there is nothing that restores or prevents the constant nerve pain he deals with. This has brought up a whole new issue of men's mental health. Living with unrelenting pain 24/7 is taking a toll as well as feelings of letting people down, constant nightmare of never moving again. He is experiencing PTSD from the fall and having waking nightmares. If you have watched the movie skyking, you will know how serious mens mental health issues can be.

So along with this fundraiser, we are starting a campaign to raise awareness for Men's mental health buy selling Re-purposed second hand t-shirts with positive meanings. I am trying to gather gently used t-shirts (plain is best) of all sizes infant through....xxxxxl! So if you have a way to contact me, please let me know if I can help you free up some space! I believe that there is momentum in this and beyond helping Jason, there is so much more we can do by raising awareness and money to reach others caught in the middle class of too much to get assistance but not enough to go it alone.

Jesus has given every human on this earth a purpose, and through much prayer and reflection, I believe that the reason we are going thru this is to shed light on the impact of kindness and spread the word that thru Christ all things are possible and it is ok to ask for help. Thank you truly for taking the time to read this and even a prayer will be appreciated.