Support for the Shallop family

On the afternoon of Tuesday, December 27th, when most of us were in the lull of a lazy week between holidays, one of my dear friends, Nicolle Shallop, and her little girl Sophia, were involved in a devastating car accident on Route 8. They were less than 1 mile from home when the accident happened, resulting in Nicolle’s vehicle rolling before coming to rest on its side in a ditch, trapping Nicolle and Sophia.

Thanks to the quick action of passing motorists, 7-year-old Sophia was eventually freed from the seatbelt which had suspended her in the overturned vehicle. While she was being rushed to the hospital and subsequently life-flighted to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh due to the severity of her multiple injuries, rescue crews were working feverishly to extricate Nicolle from the wreckage.

Thankfully, Nicolle’s injuries were determined to be moderate and she was soon released from the hospital. Sophia on the other hand, has a tough road ahead of her for the foreseeable future. Sophia has been under sedation with respiratory support and in ICU since the accident. She has endured the first of many extensive surgeries due to spinal injuries and is now battling pneumonia. She sustained additional injuries which, unfortunately, will need to wait to be addressed due to the complexity of her spinal injury.

This is not the way any of us would have imagined 2022 would have ended, nor could we have fathomed that this would be the opening act of 2023. Nicolle and Sophia are precious to so many: they are family in the truest sense of the word. At my lowest, they have stood by me through my worst days with unshakable loyalty and selflessness, blessed me with so many smiles and laughs and candid big-headed portraits done in mixed media Crayola. They need us now. They need our support and if we can all spare a few bucks, we could share the heavy weight of this devastating accident and in that way relieve a tiny bit of worry and stress from Nicolle’s shoulders. She’s one person. One mother. We can help her bare the financial costs of life, going back and forth to Pittsburgh, so that she can focus her energies on her baby girl. Sophia needs her mother, now more than ever. Let’s be the village that helps strengthen and heal one of our own. Let’s show Nicolle and Sophia that they are not alone in this. That they are not overcome. That they are loved, deeply.