Many of us moved to the Santa Clarita Valley for its great schools, small town feel and community spirit. Nothing brings that spirit out like one of our own needing help. Tom Bolewski and his family are finding out just how great that spirit of community is.
Tom and Kim Bolewski have been residents of the Santa Clarita Valley for 24 years and have three sons, Christopher, Danny and Alex. Tom is an involved Dad and has coached his sons in soccer and football as well as been an avid cyclist with the SCV Velo Team. Tom is also known to many in the Santa Clarita Valley through his business of 20 years, Current Electric Services.â¯
On January 20, 2008, while dirt bike riding, Tom’s life took a dramatic turn when he went over the handlebars in fourth gear. â¯He suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury at C3-4 which has caused him to be classified quadriplegic. He suffered many other injuries including hearing and eye damage and went through several reconstructive surgeries. He cheated death many times the first few weeks after his injury suffering lung collapse, respiratory failure and spiking fevers of 106. After spending weeks at Kern County Medical Center and then being transferred to Valley Presbyterian and on to Barlow Respiratory Hospital, Tom is in now at Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation facility in Downey. Rancho is one of the top rated Rehab facilities in the country. Tom’s days are busy, learning how to navigate his electric wheelchair and going thorough hours of physical therapy to try and regain some function in his muscles. Kim is driving between Downey and Santa Clarita to be with Tom and help in his rehab while their sons try to maintain somewhat normal lives by continuing school at COC and Valencia High.
Tom’s final prognosis in uncertain, but one thing is known. It will be years of costly treatments for Tom to be able to regain his quality of life. There are also expensive modifications that will need to be made to the family home to make it handicapped accessible and when Tom is ready to come home, a specially equipped van will need to be purchased.
To help with these expenses and to show the Bolewski family support, several events have been planned by family and friends. The biggest Benefit being planned is a Community Wide “Barbeque/Concert in the Park.” It will be held at Mountainview Park in Saugus, (Seco Canyon, north of Copperhill) on Saturday May 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Everyone is invited. There will be lots of fun activities to take part in. The “Mother of All Barbeques” or MOAB — a giant barbeque shaped like a Fire Engine, will be manned by event organizer and Fire Captain, Carlos Calvello and his crew. There will be a kid’s activity center with games and fire truck rides and on-going entertainment throughout the day as well as special guests and raffles. Several local bands will be highlighted.
There will be vendors and food and lots of fun. If you would like to find out about donating items for the event, sponsoring a booth or need more information, please call Carlos or Linda Calvello at 661-644-2948 or log onto www.Tomsrecovery.com .