Raymond is a long time employee of The Westchester building in Highland Park and a long time referee for the YMCA youth sports. Raymond is one of the hardest working men I know. He has always had multiple jobs and just a go getter. This all changed when he was admitted into the hospital on January 15. Raymond originally went to the hospital for severe neck pain and it was found that he had an infection in his neck and was having kidney failure. While he was in the hospital he was diagnosed with Covid-19.  He was placed on a ventilator/dialysis on January 18 from the complications of the infection and Covid. Raymond spent over 30 days in the hospital and was recently released. Raymond’s kidneys are on the mend but he is having to do kidney dialysis 3 days a week. As soon as Raymond was released from the hospital he was back at work not missing a beat due to the mounting medical bills and just everyday life bills that did not stop when he was out of work. I know he is stressed financially and mentally trying to  play catch-up from being in the hospital so long so anything you can do to help ease the burden will be much appreciated. When I asked his family what we could do to help financially they said nothing because Raymond would never take handouts or expect help from friends or even strangers but when a friend is in need we help no matter what. I could go on and on about what a stand up man Raymond is and why he deserves for us to rally behind him but that would take hours. Short version is he never meets a stranger, would give you the shirt off his back and puts a smile on every kids face that comes into contact with him.  Let’s make this healing process a little less stressful so he can focus on his health and not the financial burden.