Benefit Sale Planned for Sammamish's Christie Thomas

What would you do for a fellow Wolf Pack Mom? What about one you've only met once?

Kimmberly Lewis said for her, the answer is a lot. The Sammamish woman has organized a fundraiser garage sale for this weekend at Eastlake High School in support of the family of.

Items are being accepted for donation on Friday, Dec. 7, from 3-11 p.m. at the Eastlake Team Room (signs will be posted) and Lewis said she hopes a lot of people will come out and shop on Saturday, Dec. 8 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Lewis said her son, who plays football at Eastlake, told her last summer that a new family had moved to town and one of the kids, Richard "Blue" Thomas, was a football player. She didn't think much of it except to make a point to welcome his mom, Christie Thomas, the first time they met at a football event.

In fact, it wasn't until the season began in earnest and Lewis was looking for Thomas at the games in hopes of getting to know her better that she learned about the devastating stroke that has kept Thomas hospitalized since July 30.

It's been a long and arduous road for Thomas ever since the stroke. In October, Dirk Knudsen of NorthwestPrepReport.com reported that Thomas was about to be taken off life support and urged the community to offer support to her and her family, including three children, through a Facebook page.

Somehow, Thomas found the strength to pull through when life support was removed, Lewis said, and she has continued to make small but important improvements. Last week, she was able to say "Hi" to her husband, also named Richard, Lewis said.

Lewis said she knows the community strongly supports its own, but since the Thomases are fairly new to town, she feels word may not have spread as rapidly as usual about their struggle.

On Nov. 14, Thomas' parents, John & Karilyn Dammarell, wrote to friends and family about her progress:

It’s so hard to believe that it’s been 4 months since Christie's stroke – Thank you for allowing me to give you these updates and for your continued prayers. Our God is a BIG GOD and we know He hears every one of them. We have had answer after answer and although we know He hasn’t answered our prayers for COMPLETE HEALING, healing has and is occurring – in God’s Time!

Christie was moved yesterday to a respiratory care facility in Tukwila and will stay there until they have her breathing on her own. Her feeding tube was taken out of her nostril a week or so ago and put in her stomach so it’s wonderful to see Christie without tubes going into her head, nose and mouth!

Restorative therapy is being scheduled probably 5 times per week. Passive Range Therapy, i.e. getting up into a chair, will most likely be 3-5 times per week for now.

Again, the goal of this new facility is to get her breathing on her own. At that point, she will go back to Harborview where her skull cap will be put back on her head and then more rehab will be started.

We are so grateful for your prayers for our children and their families. Thank you so much for them, for your financial contributions, gift cards and meals that have been delivered to Christie’s family!

The Dammarrells also have described some very specific ways people can help the family, which has faced enormous emotional and financial strain throughout this time:

GIFT CARDS: Safeway, Costco, ARCO Gift Cards, Target – Mail to the address in #2 below.

CASH DONATIONS: Benevolent Accounts have been setup with BECU for Christie and donations can be made by credit card at PayPal.com (a 2.2% fee is charged by PayPal) as follows:

PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/send-money-online

Enter your email address and the Christie Thomas Benevolent Account email address: ChristieThomasBenevolentAcct@gmail.com and your Donation Amount. Login to your PayPal account or setup a new account. You can donate from your checking account or credit card SECURELY.

CHECK: Payable to Christie Thomas Benevolent Account and mail to me, Karilyn Dammarell, 18676 NE 55th Way, Redmond, WA 98052.

BECU: Walk into a Boeing Employees Credit Union and make a donation to the Christie Thomas Benevolent Account.

TAKE THEM A MEAL: An online site has been setup to bring dinners to the Thomas Family. Nineteen year old MaRyann has been taking care of her 16 and 10 year old brothers and her dad and it would be a great blessing for them to receive dinners. Go to:

http://www.TakeThemAMeal.com/meals.php?t=UNRN8846 . Pick a date, enter your name, email address, phone number and what your meal is and click on “Take”. Read the “Notes” to get an idea of what they like and where they live.