Help Natalie who was hit by a drunk driver.

Meet Natalie Cervantes Sanchez, a 17-year-old (about to turn 18 in October ) young lady who we were BLESSED to meet Sunday July 24th after watching her car in a head-on collision at the bottom of the Teton pass in front of the Taylor Mountain trailhead. Natalie needs all our help.

At approximately 1:15pm on Sunday July 24th another driver who was inebriated swerved into Natalie’s lane and totaled both vehicles. My friends and I had just finished our hike and heard the screeching brakes and the sound of the cars colliding, our immediate thought was someone or both parties must be injured! Natalie was fortunate that her airbags deployed, their impact fractured her sternum, and she sustained several other minor injuries. She was wearing her seat belt, which saved her life. The Sheriff later reported it was a miracle there were no fatalities in this case. We are so grateful neither driver was seriously hurt. Over the next four hours of law enforcement, ambulance and fire truck arriving on the scene we learned more about Natalie. She was calm and composed, obviously shaken and in shock yet told us her parents were out of town at a Church retreat and she could not get ahold of them. When I asked her if she’d like us to stay with her through the questioning and assesments and give her a ride home to Victor, her reply was a very sweet “Please stay”. That response pulled on all our heart strings. She told us this was her first car and that she really loved it.

Natalie just graduated Teton High School, where she played soccer for four years and ran track for three. She wants to take a gap year to work and make enough money to go to college. She had just accepted a job at McDonalds in Jackson in which she works every day of the week – July 24th marked the first full week Natalie had been working at McDonald’s. She was wearing her work uniform when we met her and was concerned it had been ripped.

We stayed with Natalie until the questioning was over and she’d been checked out by paramedics and had a secure ride home. We stayed in touch with her, and when I met her parents the next day I realized what a miracle it was we met Natalie. She was calm, humble, composed and very grateful for our being there at that moment. Her parents and sister live with her in Victor, ID, they are hardworking and deeply connected in faith to their Church.

While Natalie is fortunate to be left with minor physical injuries, the real injustice of this incident is that the driver at fault has no auto-insurance or financial capacity to cover the extensive total damage to Natalie’s car. We are asking for any donation that you can offer to help Natalie get back on her feet, so she can continue to work and pursue her goal of saving money for college. The trauma of this accident has not only impacted Natalie, but it has also done so to her mother and father as well. Both parents have had to take time off work to help her get to follow up medical appointments.

Let’s not allow any more injustice to happen here. Through your donation, you able to directly provide another person an opportunity to regain their life. Thank you for your donation.