Donate to Help Dario

Hello,

My name is William Dickinson and I am the younger brother of Gene Dickinson, which many of you around the Santa Cruz area know simply as “Dario.”

Dario and I grew up in a modest household and had to work for what we wanted. Our father was a professional scientist (he had a Ph.D. in Philosophy) & University Professor and our mother worked as an office clerk. Dario graduated Cum Laude from UCSC in the mid-1980s and was also on the Dean's list.

In January 2015, Dario had a series of seizures and in the worst of them, he had a grand mal seizure where he temporarily died while being rushed to the hospital. They didn't know what was going on and we were concerned that his heart failing him. Well, that was not it; after many tests, we discovered that he was having seizures, we also realized that there was some amount of brain damage from the seizures that mostly affected memory and some executive function. This was all literally two weeks after he had bought Aptos Natural Foods.

He did really well, post-seizure from 2015 to 2018, however, at that point, we — family and friends — could really start to see the signs of the depth of damage that was done when he got his TBI in early 2015. In fact, the neurologist said at one point that this may have been happening for years and only a series of tests will tell. So now, with physical health issues combined with the TBI, Dario feels so unhealthy on a daily basis that he is caught in an inescapable loop.

So, I'm writing a little bit out of desperation as over the last few years my brother and his business have not been doing well — partially due to typical factors like competitiveness in the marketplace and the level of involvement that you must have to own a small grocery store, and partially after he bought the store he could simply not manage it on his own, as he had done for so many years at the Food Bin/HerbRoom, and then at Aptos Natural Foods, as well. Knowing this, he brought on managers to run things for him. That did not work out for him and the whole business thing is a very deep and layered story, however, the summary of it is that the business was left back in his hands a week out of foreclosure in December 2021.

So now we are in a pickle I live in North Vancouver British Columbia, Canada I am nowhere near Santa Cruz and cannot help other than I have been involved remotely trying to save his business. Sadly, I was not successful.

So… this crowdsourcing/fundraising effort is twofold…

FIRST, DARIO'S STORE:

• If you can't donate I ask that you go and shop at Aptos Natural Foods over the next couple of days. We will officially close for good in a few days, so right now, everything is at 50% off (with a few exceptions, as we do not own consignment items).

SECOND DARIO PERSONALLY:

• His store was Dario's only source of income and he has general living expenses & medical needs piling on which include a bunch of Dentistry that is not covered by any insurance.

• If you have money to donate my brother needs all kinds of things.

» He needs about $25,000 worth of dental work;

» He had his car stolen this last year and while he got the car back, it had a bunch of his clothes and personal items in it and now he has very limited clothing and personal items;

» He also lost his computer/laptop; it was simply a Google Chromebook, however, he is having a difficult time regarding appointments with doctors and care providers.

» Ongoing financial assistance and managing some general affairs is also needed.

Unfortunately, I now live in Canada and I cannot help him from here or come there to help.

If you know my brother, you know that he is very proud and private. In fact, even posting this may have risked my relationship with him. But I would rather see him pissed at me than homeless, with no money, no income, and no future. I can see he's at the end of his rope and not able to see clearly through the mire of all this craziness.

So, if you can, please help — even $5 helps!

If you cannot help, I understand, times are tough for many, but please forward it to someone who might be able to help.

Thank you!!

--

William