Anyone who’s been stationed with Alex and Kristie Mimms knows what kind of people they are. They’re the first ones at your door when you need help. They’ve done it at Fairchild, Germany, Texas, and New Mexico, often for people they’d only just met. Now they need us.

What happened

Late on a Friday night in September, Alex and his 7-year-old son Jax were riding an e-bike near their home in Clovis, New Mexico, when a vehicle struck them in a potential hit-and-run.

Alex took the force of the crash and shielded Jax from it. Jax walked away with a concussion. Alone and unable to wake his dad, he ran door to door until someone answered and called for help.

Alex was flown to the trauma ICU in Lubbock, Texas, with a severe traumatic brain injury. His brain twisted in the fall and bled. His arm was broken badly enough to need two plates and twelve screws. He spent weeks on a ventilator and a feeding tube. Kristie stayed by his bed two hours from home while family and friends looked after Bella, Kenzie, and Jax.

Where he is now

Alex is fighting back, and he's surprising everyone. The military flew him to Craig Hospital's neurorehabilitation center in Colorado, one of the best brain-injury rehab programs in the country. In the two weeks since his first assessment there, his care team has been amazed.

He's eating regular food again. He's naming objects and solving problems, which had been some of his hardest skills to get back. In one therapy session he did 11 squats, and Kristie cried watching him. His doctors have told her he has the kind of brain injury people recover well from, and the staff expect him to keep improving quickly.

His sense of humor is fully intact. Back in Lubbock, his speech therapist asked him whether bricks float, and he answered with a look that said exactly what he thought of the question. When Kristie pointed to her glasses and asked what she was wearing, he told her: "spectacles."

There's still a long road ahead. Doctors are checking his vision for possible optic nerve damage from the fall. He'll spend about 60 days at Craig in intensive therapy, rebuilding his speech, strength, and independence. After that comes the move home and months of outpatient care.

Why we’re asking

Kristie is a labor and delivery nurse, and she has won two Daisy Awards, which come from patient nominations. She has spent her career caring for other families on their hardest and happiest days. She’s already been away from work for over a month. Between Alex’s time at Craig and getting him settled at home, she’ll likely be out about six months.

That’s half a year of lost income for a family of five, at a time when they need it most. This fund replaces Kristie’s paycheck so she can stay with Alex instead of worrying about the bills. The $35,000 goal covers about six months of her take-home pay. Every dollar goes directly to Kristie.

Kristie is one of the humblest people you’ll ever meet, and she didn’t want this fundraiser. She agreed to it because the people who love this family insisted.

How you can help

Give whatever you can. Every amount counts.

Share this page. Most of the people who’ll see it don’t know the Mimms family yet, and they’ll only hear about it if you pass it along.

Pray for Alex’s recovery, for Kristie’s strength, and for Bella, Kenzie, and Jax while their dad is far from home.

Meals and immediate needs are being coordinated separately through the family’s Meal Train: mealtrain.com/trains/vme95z

About the organizer

I’m Jared Schell. I was stationed with Alex at Sheppard AFB from 2019 to 2023, and the Mimms family has been family to me ever since. When I heard, I drove overnight from Pensacola to Lubbock to spend a few days with them.