John "Jack" Coughlin's Family Support Fund
Donation protected
On Jan 20th, 4:15pm our 77-year-old father, John Coughlin, was struck by a small SUV on Mill Street in Agawam. His injuries were catastrophic and have left him paralyzed from the neck down. He will need a feeding tube and a ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life.
When the small SUV struck our father, he was doing what he has done every day for the last 23 years since his retirement from Verizon, cleaning our environment. On average he walked 10 miles a day cleaning parks, ponds, rivers, roadways and parking lots of trash and discarded "nip" bottles. If you've ever fished the banks of the Connecticut River, visited parks in Holyoke, Springfield, West Springfield and Agawam, or have simply driven through any of these cities and towns, you have seen our father. He was always out there volunteering to improve our environment.
I urge you to read more about our father's story here https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/08/metro/mission-rid-state-nips-other-discarded-trash-ends-tragedy/ and continue to carry his message now that he has been forever silenced.
We are desperately trying to find a way to bring him home so that he may spend whatever time he has left in a warm loving environment where access to the outdoors means simply opening the sliding glass doors. It is impossible to imagine our father stuck inside of a nursing facility for a single day let alone a year, two, or even three!
The costs of bringing him home will be astronomical to say the least. We ask that you please consider making a donation to our family so that we may have a fighting chance to bring home the man who has spent decades fighting to improve the lives of so many others.
When the small SUV struck our father, he was doing what he has done every day for the last 23 years since his retirement from Verizon, cleaning our environment. On average he walked 10 miles a day cleaning parks, ponds, rivers, roadways and parking lots of trash and discarded "nip" bottles. If you've ever fished the banks of the Connecticut River, visited parks in Holyoke, Springfield, West Springfield and Agawam, or have simply driven through any of these cities and towns, you have seen our father. He was always out there volunteering to improve our environment.
I urge you to read more about our father's story here https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/08/metro/mission-rid-state-nips-other-discarded-trash-ends-tragedy/ and continue to carry his message now that he has been forever silenced.
We are desperately trying to find a way to bring him home so that he may spend whatever time he has left in a warm loving environment where access to the outdoors means simply opening the sliding glass doors. It is impossible to imagine our father stuck inside of a nursing facility for a single day let alone a year, two, or even three!
The costs of bringing him home will be astronomical to say the least. We ask that you please consider making a donation to our family so that we may have a fighting chance to bring home the man who has spent decades fighting to improve the lives of so many others.
Organizer
Pauline Armitage Coughlin
Organizer
East Longmeadow, MA