Please Help Cody Buy a New Accessible Vehicle

As many of you may know, I broke my neck in Cancun Mexico when I was 18 years old in 2001, resulting in me becoming a quadriplegic leaving me paralyzed from my chest down, including my fingers and most of my arm muscles. I was at a crossroad in my life where everything was telling me to just give up, but I chose to continue on with life, even in some of the harshest situation.

After two complicated surgeries and several months of inpatient rehab, I continued on with my original plan and attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where I graduated with a finance degree. Soon after graduation and after working for a wonderful local family operated business, I received an offer from Bridgestone's corporate office in Nashville. I have been honored to work for Bridgestone the past 17 years and look forward to continue working with all the amazing people there for many more years. I'm one of the people that is working from home, but still enjoys driving into the office just to get out of the house and enjoy the city.

I enjoy getting out to local events, concerts, sporting events, restaurants, and Broadway in Nashville. I find pride in running my own errands, picking up my own groceries, going to my own appointments, buying my own necessities, visiting friends, and taking my service dog to the park independently.

Many of my successes are due to the amazing support I have around me. The second piece that made everything possible was the ability to be able to drive myself in an accessible vehicle. I started driving my first van with specially adapted hand controls in college about 3 years after my accident. After an accident in 2010, I purchased an accessible pickup truck with a very unique and impressive lift to put me in it. I would take the truck to rehab facilities and car shows just to show people what's possible even with a high level disability. I loved my truck and treated it that way, as well. It was "freedom with style" I would tell people. I put over 200K miles on it and still ran fine. Unfortunately, the lift on it broke in such a way where it is not going to cost more to refurbish the whole thing than to replace it. My heart broke when I heard the news. The idea of being stuck without a way to get around is not an idea I am going to accept. I am going to buy another accessible vehicle with adaptive controls. I've already decided that a van would be a more logical and convenient method rather than another truck. A van would allow me to switch the seats and sit as a passenger rather than being a driver all the time. Road trips would be an option with a van.

The largest obstacle that I must get through is the expense. A new accessible van with a lift is in the upwards of $90,000. The controls and labor to outfit the van is around $80,000. It's very unfortunate that the cost of my ability to go where I want and when I want is so steep, but I will not let that stop me. I will use my 401k and my savings in order to obtain a loan for the amount, but before I go down that route, I thought I'd do something that I'd never do, and ask for some financial help with my situation. I'm strong believer I'm working, saving, and borrowing and paying back debt for the things you want in life. I'm not a fan of charity. I would much rather give back then receive. In this case, I'm having to swallow my pride and personally ask for help. Please don't feel any pressure to donate as I know things will work out in the end.

I really hope everyone is well! Thank you for taking the time to read this and you're consideration to donate.