Ryan Brown's Family Relief Fund

Ryan Brown is a gifted engine tuner and builder of performance engine components who is well known to most muscle car and racing enthusiasts in Western Canada, and whose reputation extends across North America. Anyone who knows Ryan will tell you that he is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. From his shop near Strathmore Alberta, where he works entirely as a "one man show", Ryan has earned the great admiration of all who know him, and has done this without creating a single enemy.Ryan is also a dedicated husband to Jennifer and father of three boys: Tyler (13), Matthew (8) and Trent (5). When he is not toiling in his shop, Ryan can be found at the rink coaching hockey, or at the Strathmore go-kart track tirelessly servicing his sons' karts and keeping them on the track. Given the commitment and energy that three young sons demand, Jennifer has been a stay-at-home mom over the last several years.Despite Ryan's dedication to workplace and race track safety, on Wednesday, December 7, 2016, an extremely cold and dry day, Ryan had a tragic accident in his shop. While pouring gasoline into a funnel, inexplicably, despite no heat source and no apparent source of spark in the vicinity, the fuel ignited and exploded, severely burning Ryan's entire face and head. He was airlifted by STARS Air Ambulance to the Burn Unit at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, where he will spend at least five weeks. His entire head is badly burned. To date, Ryan has had six major surgeries, which include skin grafting to his cheeks, ears, nose, forehead and scalp, using large tracts of skin harvested from his back, thighs and buttocks. Needless to say, these weeks in the Burn Unit have been and will continue to be unimaginably painful.It seems that the only explanation for the fire is that the air was so dry that static electricity caused the fuel to ignite. This is the kind of accident that could happen to anyone, despite the taking of all appropriate precautions.Ryan's shop and equipment are heavily damaged. More importantly, it will be many months of recovery before Ryan is able to resume his business, and even then, the process of rebuilding his shop equipment and inventory will be time-consuming and costly. As a sole practitioner, Ryan is ineligible for statutory Workers' Compensation, and does not have disability insurance. While Ryan always exercised prudence with his finances (as with all other things), his business, while successful, has not made him rich.While we, his friends, can't reduce the pain associated with this injury, we can help with the anxiety associated with the resulting financial hardship. We all like to think that if this sort of thing were to happen to us, our friends would be there for us. This is our time to be there for Ryan. Donations are deeply appreciated!!