Help Dave and Lauren through difficult times

Hello all,

On behalf of the family and friends of Dave Thomas and his beloved fiancé, Lauren Mahieu, I would like to extend an invitation to help support some of the kindest souls of many in our little yet mighty Lempster Community during a very challenging time. Dave and Lauren would likely never ask for help on their own.

A little back story: Lauren moved to NH from The Cape quite a few years back landing in Goshen, NH where her children attended Lempster Community School. Lauren started serving our local community almost 10 years ago becoming, and still remaining, a very valued paraprofessional at LCS. She selflessly cares for the children in our community day in and day out, stepping up where ever she is needed throughout the school. She even dedicates extra time co-running the after-school program.

​After Lauren and Dave met, they moved to Lempster together where they still currently reside. Dave started working as a coach bus driver for Premier and he is certainly a favorite of those that had the chance to have him as their driver. Shortly thereafter, COVID happened… Dave’s hours were cut back drastically. Dave thought what better way to fill his time than to become a bus driver at the Lempster Community School (where Lauren’s heart already dug deep roots) in his extra spare time. Bus Driver Dave very quickly became well loved by many students in our community. Then as COVID slowed down and Premier started to pick back up, Dave balanced both his coach bus driving and school bus driving. He even had the chance to transport the younger grades as a Premier driver on the coach bus to their field trip last year. I know our kids still talk about this experience!

Fast forward to this past summer: Dave has had a long-time dream of building a camp on the property he bought on the Lempster Long Pond Road. He has been plugging away at the property throughout the past few years as time and funds allowed little by little. In July while working on the property Dave took a tumble, breaking his leg significantly needing extensive care and healing. During his care, the Dr’s noticed lesions on his x-rays which led to further testing. It was discovered that Dave has Myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, of which is treatable but not curable.

​Even after this diagnosis… and after the long leg healing process was showing an end in sight… on the days where Dave was feeling up to it, he would climb back on that bus to show up for our kiddos!

​Dave is currently in the hospital for an over 2-week stint where he is receiving a stem cell transplant and chemo. Lauren is continuing to show up and serve our students with love and dedication all while working a second job at Hannaford. She is spending any spare moment she can squeeze in traveling back and forth to keep Dave company and provide him support. Dave is strong willed and handling it all so well, despite the chemo making him feel very sick.

​While both Dave and Laura have remained so strong and positive through these trying times and would never ask for help, I am hoping we can all come together for a few different goals in mind:

Short term goal: The short-term goal would be to raise money to help with both bills and gas to help put both Dave and Lauren at ease financially, taking one burden off of them. Both Dave and Lauren’s children and close family and friends have stepped up drastically to help however they can. But the hope of this fundraiser would be to raise enough money so Lauren can take at least a few weeks off from her second job at Hannaford in order to have more time to go spend with Dave.

Long term goal: The long-term goal we have in mind would be to help raise the funds, time, talent, and resources to come together as a community… friends, family, coworkers, former students… in order to make Dave and now Lauren’s dream come true in building their tiny one room cabin retreat on Lempster Long Pond Road. A place where they can find peace and comfort for rest and recovery. If you are willing to contribute outside of the gofundme for time, talent, or resources in helping with the “barn raising” of their cabin become a reality, please reach out to Bethany Doody through fb messenger or through the go fund me.

Thank you all for your consideration, donations, shares, prayers, ect. I promise you these two are most deserving of all!