On Sunday, Kevin returned to Philadelphia for a fundraiser hosted by his friends at Union Trust! The event was a huge success, and Kevin was really glad to get back to town for the first time since he left Magee and see so many people he loves! The organizers did an amazing job and raised a significant amount of funds for the Kevin Neary Trust. We will have a final tally to announce soon. We are incredibly grateful to Union Trust for opening up their amazing restaurant and hosting such a successful event!

It is hard to believe it has been nearly six months since Kevin’s injury. In that short time frame, Kevin has made remarkable progress and shown an unwavering spirit. His friends, family, and community have also shown an incredible resilience and support for Kevin. So far, with your help we have raised over $218,000 (not counting the significant total from the Union Trust event) to help meet Kevin’s needs.

That is a remarkable figure, and we wanted to take a few moments to thank everyone who has contributed their time, talent, and resources on Kevin’s behalf. Local businesses, neighbors, relatives, and new and old friends have been touched by Kevin’s story over this past half year. We cannot begin to list all of the acts of kindness, both large and small, that so many people have offered up on Kevin’s behalf. Please know that all of those acts of kindness are greatly appreciated by Kevin and our family.

We have also received donations of equipment, such as Kevin’s mattress and ramp that have helped us significantly. We want to again thank Neighbor Care in Upper Chichester for contributing the mattress, which alleviates some of the pressure points that can lead to severe skin complications that could seriously compromise Kevin’s condition. We also want to acknowledge the members of the local Masonic Temple who spent the better part of a day and a half putting together a ramp for the house.

We’re also grateful for the media’s continued coverage of Kevin’s amazing story of recovery. The van that we were able to acquire was the direct result of someone seeing the story on television and reaching out to us to offer the van to us at a bargain price. We know we’ll miss someone but we want to thank all of the local news stations, producers and reporters who have continued to follow Kevin’s story, especially Oren Liebermann, Doug Shimell, Anne Marie Johnson, Vernon Odom, Dan Cuellar, Elizabeth Hur, and many others.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the print media who have helped generate interest in Kevin’s story. We’d like to thank Tim Logue and John Kopp at the Delaware County Daily Times for their continued coverage of the story. We would especially like to express our gratitude to Melissa Dribben who has written several articles that have captured Kevin’s spirit and humor for the Philadelphia Inquirer. These stories have touched so many people in the region and have generated broad support for Kevin while conveying both the struggle Kevin faces and the resiliency of spirit with which Kevin will face them. We are grateful that the articles have touched other lives as well — other families with loved ones with similar conditions or injuries have reached out to find out more about the surgery that is assisting Kevin to breathe without the ventilator.

All of this attention and support has been going to a very good place. To date, we have spent about $35,000 for the shower trolley, van, backup generator, and various miscellaneous expenses. We know that these expenses will continue and we will update the website with additional information about how the fundraising efforts have been helping Kevin in the future.

We have so many others to thank, but we’ll have to stop here for now. Please know that every bit of support means the world to us, and we are tremendously grateful.

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days!