Support Danica Nichols (Myers) Urgent Dental Care

Hi TEP brothers of Psi Chapter,

My name is RJ Pickens and I'm a pledge class of 2000 brother who had the pleasure of living life in Champaign-Urbana under house mother and house cook watch of Tracy Myers (aka Tracy Dodge, aka Tracy Richie). I've previously organized a fundraiser for Tracy to help her out financially when things got really tough for her, and I'm forever grateful to those of you who jumped on board with me to pay it forward and lend her a hand. I can't possibly count all the times that she helped me navigate things while a student and living in the house, both large and small, and I'm eternally grateful for her and what she did for all of us during her time there. Lord knows we made it difficult on her some days, and looking back, she's a bit of a saint for sticking with for all those years.

As many of you know, we lost Tracy in late August last year in 2024. She left this Earth plane as a result of medical complications from a pancreatic surgery, and although she endured a lot of physical suffering over a number of years up until that point, she went peacefully in her sleep soon after that operation. I have been in ongoing contact with her daughter Danica Nichols (Myers), whom has been really helpful in providing information and clarity in the wake of Tracy's passing. Tracy's wishes were to be cremated, and she didn't want any kind of big service or memorial or big fuss to be made.

However, I think she'd be happy to know that we collectively did something good for Danica. After Tracy's passing, I mentioned to her that if there was anything we could help with (given that there would be no funeral or associated expenses with that), to not be hesitant to let me know and I'd see what we could collectively do. Well, some time passed, and she hesitantly reached out to see if we might know of an oral surgeon who would take payment in installments. Danica then proceeded to share with me that she is in some dire need of dental work. There are quite a few of her teeth that just are not in good shape any more and because she hadn't been able to afford regular dental care, and she is now requiring a number of implants.

As it turns out, after I reached out to the network of TEP brothers via our Facebook group, I was made aware that brother Amarik Singh (from pledge class of 1993) is an oral surgeon with a practice in the Chicagoland area who specializes in dental implants. In a superb display of bridgebuilding, Amarik volunteered to do these dental implants for Danica pro-bono (in terms of his own compensation), but he would still need to be able to pay his staff who will be instrumental in the procedures.

So here is where I'm asking for your help, TEP brothers. Amarik is doing the majority of the heavy lifting here. (**mega finger snaps for him in our virtual house meeting setting**) -- The total billing estimate for these implants is just shy of $50K, and he's taking care of $38K off the total cost of admission here. This leaves $10K+ that Danica still needs to come up with that she's frankly just not in a position to come up with. For your reference, I've included a screen cap of the billing estimate below.

This was not an easy thing for Danica to ask for, and truth be told, she didn't really directly ask for this because of reasons I'm sure I don't need to illustrate. She did ask me for some direction / advice / recommendation, in which we landed where we did with Amarik -- thanks to our alumni network communication effort and Amarik's generous offer. She then spoke to me about trying to sell heirloom items / antiques to try and pay for the staffing costs for her procedures. I told her to hold off on that until we figured out what we could do for her.

That's where you all come in. If you can contribute anything to this cause, be it a small amount or a larger one, it would be very much appreciated! We'd also be doing right by Tracy in doing right by Danica -- so I'm asking you all to please consider making a contribution here. Collectively, we should be able to make quick work of this amount that needs to be raised in order to give Danica back a beautiful and healthy smile.

Friendship. Chivalry. Service.

Let's do some good here, fellas.

Much love and gratitude to you all.

RJ Pickens

PS: Thanks also to Mark Mirsky (pledge class of 1991) for helping coordinate communication on this effort -- your assistance was instrumental in making this happen!