Support Whippoorwill Farms and Marissa’s Journey to Recovery

Hi, I'm Marissa Paykos, the owner and operator of Whippoorwill Farms SC in Ridgeland, SC. While I usually am not the one asking for help, more accustomed to the one trying to give and support instead, myself and my farm are in desperate need of your support right now.

On September 21st, 2024 I suffered a devastating freak fall that has left me facing a long, painful road to recovery and walking again.

But first let me tell you a bit about myself, my family and my life’s work at Whippoorwill Farms.

Myself and my loving husband James run a commercial regenerative farm in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Together with my daughter, Ellie, and a dedicated team we have built a business that is as much about giving back as it is about sustainability. In Jasper County—one of the most economically challenged areas of the state—our "Pay What You Can" Produce Stand has become a beacon of hope. Anyone in need can come to the farm, pick up fresh produce, eggs, and meat at the stand when it is stocked and pay whatever they are able, even if that’s nothing at all. Whenever there is abundance on the farm, there is abundance available for the community.

The farm makes their living and pays their employees by attending multiple weekly farmers markets, running a very large subscription program, selling to many local chefs weekly and even has a campground on our farm for people to see first hand just what we do.

Beyond my local community, I share the grit and reality of farming through my social media presence, "The Executive in Overalls." I’m not just educating people—I’m inspiring them. Every day, i pour my heart into my farm and my team, making sure my employees earn a livable wage, a principle I refuse to compromise on. And making sure that everything we do, each choice we makes builds towards a better more sustainable future.

My husband and I share a love story built on hard work, family, and unwavering faith in each other. Our joy grew even more recently when, after trying for over eight long years, we learned we were expecting our second child.

Then, tragedy struck. On Saturday, September 21st, at 17 weeks pregnant, I had a freak accident, falling in the farm's fields. To protect my unborn baby, I braced myself with my legs, but the impact caused a severe compound fracture in my ankle, leaving my foot barely attached. Alone and terrified, I feared I might never walk again and—worse—lose the child we had longed for.

Through sheer courage, I managed to find my phone and call 911. I used my clothing to apply a makeshift tourniquet to slow the bleeding on my ankle as I pleaded to the 911 dispatcher to please hurry, I was losing so much blood. My foot was completely unattached to my leg, dangling on by just a few tendons and skin. I laid back alone in the dirt and knew I had to stay conscious and calm to keep the baby safe. I also knew the team was coming back to the field soon and they would find me. But I just had to hang on. After about 10 minutes, a team member found me and applied another tourniquet from the shirt off her own back. James was inside sleeping after working nights and another employee rushed to wake him. He arrived on the scene with his belt removed to applied yet another tourniquet to my leg.

Because Whippoorwill Farms is in such a remote area, it took nearly 30 agonizing minutes for EMS to arrive.

Since then, I have undergone 5 surgeries to reconstruct my leg. Unfortunately, despite the surgeons and infectious disease doctors best efforts, I still contracted osteomyelitis in my foot and for the last 5 months, have been on both drip IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics. At the time of the accident, the wound was fully exposed and covered in dirt and grass in a high traffic livestock area. I am also missing a large piece of bone from my ankle that will need to be added from a cadaver sometime after the infection is under control. The doctors are also now talking about the architecture of the joint being damaged now as well.

The days and months ahead will be challenging. It's been almost 5 months since my accident, and I have been non weight bearing unless my foot is wrapped with my walking boot on. Even with those precautions though, I am still unable to bear full weight and I use the help of mobility devices.

The baby, through all of this, from what we can tell, with complication after complication has been healthy and strong. We're looking forward to welcoming them to the family at the end of February.

My injury has not only affected myself but ripples through my farm, my team, and my community I serve. With 2 horrible storm hits this fall and fall crops struggling to rebound, Whippoorwill Farms was teetering on the edge of a financial crisis. But because of all of the donations we received up to this point, we have been able to build back our destroyed gardens, pay additional staff that took my place on the farm, help cover some of my income I wasn't making from the farm because of not working, allow my husband to stay home to take care of me and our daughter for almost 3 months unpaid from his off farm job AND pay for my medical bills up to this point.

We truly had thought though, that after 3 months, all of this would be over. I was told so many times, I'd be walking and carrying my newborn. But now we know that's not the reality. I have many more surgeries ahead and so much more recovery to face and even amputation has been discussed on multiple occasions.

Our family, for the last 10 years has been living in an RV. We chose this lifestyle so we could pour into our farm and build our business. It worked for us and I have been determined to continue to make it work. But over the last 5 months, I have learned just how handicap inaccessible the space truly is. My husband replaced the shower to help me be able to actually fit a shower chair in the shower and we have made every accommodation possible to help me get around in the RV. But unfortunately, I can barely fit through the doorways with my walker and once I take my boot off for the evening, because I cannot fit inside with my wheelchair, I am unable to join the family in the kitchen to cook meals or even join them at our very tiny dining table. I haven't been able to get up to tuck my daughter in her room since the accident and my general participation with my family's day to day life has been so incredibly limited because of my lack of ability to use mobility devices in the RV.

With the baby just weeks away from arriving and more surgeries on the horizon, my husband decided that I needed to be able to get around in our home with my wheelchair. He's watched me struggle for months and months and although I was determined to push through, he's right, it's just not practical anymore. A couple of weeks ago, we went to look at mobile homes. We'll be able to move our RV from where it is, and set up a mobile home in it's place.

We looked at a ton of different models and options. But most importantly, I took my wheelchair to make sure I could fit through doorways with it. When we finally found a model that was handicap accessible, I started crying when I wheeled myself through the bedrooms and to the bathroom. I finally saw what my husband saw, just how much more independent I could be and how much more I could help our family and my daughter and new baby if I had that option.

We have poured everything into our business over the past almost 7 years. Any time we had extra money, we invested it in our business, in our employees and in our community. We didn't budget this new expense in but we know it is so very needed.

Anything you would be willing to contribute to help us continue to run our farm business, impact our community AND help me recover in a more handicap accessible space so that I can continue to do the very important work I love, it would be so greatly appreciated.

James and myself built Whippoorwill Farms from the ground up, transforming it from a patch of woodland into a thriving, vital part of the community. Now, we need you to rally behind us.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity and compassion. With your help, I can recover stronger than before and be able to be present in my family's life. Maybe I'll even be back in the fields, working alongside of my team, like I dream of doing each and every day. Together, we can keep this farm thriving in a community that needs what we do here, so very much.

learn more about what we do at https://Lowcountryfarmtotable.com

https://Facebook.com/wwfsc

https://Instagram.com/theexecutiveinoveralls

https://YouTube.com/@theexecutiveinoveralls