The Story Of The Van Fund

My name is Michael O’Connell. I live in Sacramento, California, and I have Muscular Dystrophy. And as the summer of 2006 began, I was in a bad spot.

I need a very specialized, and very expensive, modified van to be able to drive - to get to work, to the store, to doctors appoints, to be able to live on my own and be independent. I’d been driving the same van for almost fifteen years. And it was falling apart. It had gone from annoying and inconvenient to drive to being downright dangerous. I needed a new one, but couldn’t see how I was going to make that happen, financially.

My stepfather, knowing my dilemma, decided to call the company that builds the vans and see if any used ones were available. They don’t become available very often. One just had. It was exactly what I needed, it was a 2001 (as opposed to my ’85), only had 31,000 miles on it, and getting it would guarantee me safe and worry-free driving for at least a decade. It was available, but would not be forever. But again... how to afford it?

On June 1st, 2006, I decided to put up a web page telling my story, just to see if anyone out there on the web might be interested in helping out. To my immediate amazement, I found out they were. The page spread everywhere, passed from person to person, sent by e-mail, posted on boards, traded on MySpace. Local news in Sacramento caught on to the story, and my van quest tale made it on to four different TV stations here in town. Friends, family and total strangers from around the globe joined in. I raised an absolutely stunning amount of money through selfless donations. It was further than I could have dreamed of going with it. But it still wasn’t enough to finish the deal, and time was running out.

And then my grandmother stepped up with the most amazing and wonderful offer. She wanted me to have this van, and knew its importance to my life. She offered to loan me the remaining amount. Through her intervention, the dream came true. On July 10th, I flew down to Los Angeles to be fitted for the new van, a process that takes a few days. By the end of that week, I was driving away in my new, beautiful, worry-free van.

But though the van is now mine, there’s still the matter of a lot of money to pay back to my grandmother. It’s money she needs, and my greatest hope is to be able to pay it back as soon as possible. So I thought, one more time, I would turn to the web and see if there were any willing souls out there to help me make this happen.

Hence, this new page. And the new quest to pay back Grandma.

Feel free to explore the site for more detailed information on the van and the whole story behind the campaign.

Much of the info is taken from the original “I Need a Van” page". And if you feel like you’d like to contribute to the cause, you can do so using the PayPal link on this page (no PayPal membership needed... you can use a major credit card through that instead) or by sending a donation to the P.O. Box listed. I thank you in advance for your interest and consideration... and Grandma thanks you too!

 

Paying Back Grandma

My Grandma stepped in when I was about to miss my only chance to stay mobile and working.

If she hadn't, I would be looking at unemployment and not being able to get around.

She put herself into debt to the tune of $30k just for me. I'd like to pay her back.

Although I work, it isn't exactly a highly paid job. If you can help me, and my Grandma, with a small donation, I would appreciate it very much indeed.

Thank you.