Tom Dailey - Help a man who has helped so many

Hi, I am Julie Lindemann and I would like to invite you to consider supporting my friend and former colleague Tom Dailey who is in desperate need.

I’ve known Tom for 37 years. We met while we both worked at Discover Card, and have remained good friends.

Tom always had an entrepreneurial spirit and managed and created successful businesses. He was a generous supporter of many nonprofit causes throughout his life and has served the community on the boards of many nonprofit organizations. He led the Columbus Center of Science and Industry COSI), through the difficult pandemic years as Chair of the Board of Trustees even as his own business was suffering financially. He personally donated over $1.2 million to small nonprofits via a private foundation he founded in 2012.

Prior to the pandemic, Tom’s entrepreneurial spirit led him down the path of owning and running a group of restaurants in the Columbus, Ohio area. It was intended to be a gentle pathway into retirement but the timing could not have been worse. His restaurants opened months before the pandemic, never recovered from its effects, and to make matters worse, three restaurants were located in the heart of downtown Columbus where office towers remain fully or partially uninhabited to this day. To keep the teams at his five restaurants employed, Tom exhausted his pension, 401(k), and all of his personal savings, a home equity loan and non-forgivable SBA loans from the federal government.

In August 2022, Tom suffered a nearly-fatal Traumatic Brain Injury in a fall down 18 stairs – was comatose, in respiratory failure and on life support, hospitalized for 24 days and given a low probability of survival.

Thankfully he prevailed against the odds and did survive, however he experiences ongoing cognitive and physical impacts and permanent disabilities and is unable to drive or manage multiple restaurants.

Tom’s personal current medical debt exceeds $100,000, claims by attorneys and landlords are gigantic, and the business losses are gigantic.

Tom might have been able to survive the pandemic on its own, or the accident on its own, but the combination of the two created a perfect financial storm. The debt is piling up, his home is in foreclosure, the restaurants are closed, Landlords are in pursuit and as he put it to me, he now has less cash in the bank and savings than his 20's. He now has no funds for retirement, very little in savings, large business debt, high medical bills and low prospects of future employment due to accident-related cognitive and physical disability.

For decades, Tom selflessly - in word, deed, and funding – supported worthy causes and gave back to the community. Despite his leg and hand disabilities, he still serves his church as organist every weekend. He desperately needs our support, but he would never even consider asking for it. Please consider giving to Tom as he has given of himself, so that he can take care of basic needs, medical bills and living expenses as he works through this crisis.

If you are not in a position to contribute monetarily, you can help by saying a prayer, and passing on this message to others . Thank you.