Heather Needs Our Help
Earth & State's Creater, Captain, and Co-Owner Heather Arata, Needs Our Help
Who is Heather?
If you live, work, and/or frequent the town of Media, PA, undoubtedly you have met Heather Arata. A warm smile, a friendly giggle, a listening ear, are just a few qualities that come to mind when describing Heather.
Born and raised in Brookhaven, PA Heather LaPorte Arata is a lifelong resident of Delaware County, with a short stint in Ohio, where she attended Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology.
Today, she is more commonly known as #HeatherAndDrew, having spent the last 20 years with her soulmate, husband, best-friend, and business partner Drew Arata.
Heather and Drew were married 16 years ago at the Community Arts Center, where Drew teaches art classes and workshops in Wallingford, PA.
Heather is co-owner with her husband Drew of the one-of-a-kind Earth & State, a retail store in Media, PA, known for hand-made gifts, collectibles & ceramics made in the United States and Canada.
As a small business owner and family run store, Heather's absence has already impacted the day to day operations and financial stability of the store. Coming just days before the Christmas holiday, the busiest season of the year for Earth & State will have financial repurcussions for some time to come. (We need our Captain back at the store!)
Earth & State recently celebrated their 15th year of business and are proud founding members of America's First Fair Trade Town Commitee.
Earth & State is an active participant in Media events, ranging from the Media Business Authority, to the Media Arts Council, Town Talk events, and are generally involved in the community and the township.
(Drawing by the talented Sara Villari from GirlsCanTell)
Heather & Drew - as Earth & State, have declared their own assault on cancer, and are constantly raising funds and giving of their time to charities and organizations, such as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-day walk for Breast Cancer Research, Alex's Lemonade, St Jude's (#JakeysJourney), childhood Cancer walk sponsered by CHOP and University of Pennsylvania, the Leukemia/Lymphoma society, and the Delaware County Breast Cancer Coalition.
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For More Information on Earth & State: Facebook
What Happened:
On Wed. December 20th aprox 1pm, Heather was at home alone and slipped and fell on the stairs. She attempted to catch her self, twisted her right ankle, and fell onto her left leg shattering her left ankle. Luckily, she fell with her phone in her hand, and was able to call her husband Drew for help, as she could not move on her own.
Doctor's Orders:
Medically Speaking:
Pre-Surgery: Heather has a spiral fracture in her fibia & two fractures in her tibia on her left foot. One fracture goes completely through the ankle. This break concerned the surgeon who said it may require more than one surgery but confident that it can be fixed.
Surgery: Heather had her surgery at Rothman Institute on Wed. Dec. 27th. 
The surgery went well but it turned out she had a fourth break on the top of her foot which they couldn’t see until they looked at the ct.
She also had fragments of bone disintegrating & floating around. (She told her Mom she could feel moving bone!)
Doctor Rachel Shakked removed the pieces & put in a lot of hardware & gave Heather a huge cast! She told Heather that the amount of damage was really surprising, and that she doesn’t normally see this much damage unless it’s a car wreck.
Store Wise: Enormous thanks to everyone who came out of the woodwork to help. Drew & crew made it through the last few days of the holiday season all in one piece.
Now comes inventory, moving the storage unit & general day to day store activities that now fall on Drew's shoulders alone.
Heather is out of commission for at least six weeks. Earth & State will need to hire someone to fill her place and help Drew at the store.
Financially:
Paid in Full: $4600 of a $5500 deductible
On January 1st the deductible begins again.
Other Costs: CoPays for physical therapy , follow up appointments, medical equipment, and other items like anesthesia, crutches etc., have still yet to be calculated.
Big prayers that Heather doesn't need a second surgery.
Other Ways You Can Help: DREW! If you're local, please stop by and see Drew at Earth & State! Make sure he's eating, and sleeping, and lend a helping hand when you can.
Heather is not yet ready for visitors, but we will let you know when she is!
And Please, share our link, far and wide, you never know who may see this and be inspired to contribute just like you did! www.gofundme.com/HeatherNeedsOurHelp
