Todd Urick and cat. In his own words Todd describes himself as an “optimist: analytical, spiritual, vegetarian, laid-back Californian. I enjoy technical writing, programming, outdoors, daytrips, playing music, vegetarian cooking, vintage fashion, design, mid-century architecture, 1970 style, gardening, DJ-ing , record collecting, camping, and nonprofit volunteering.”
As of this writing over 125 people have raised more than $8k in GoFundMe support for Todd Urick, a co-founder of the Common Frequency grass roots radio advocacy group. Todd managed the University of California at Davis’ KDVS-FM for a spell, and he has been an indispensable advocate for Low Power FM radio for years. But several years ago a nasty car accident laid him low.
I’ll let Urick’s GoFundMe post fill in the details:
“I have a history of multiple traumatic brain injury. My recent deterioration started in 2013 when I bashed my head in an auto accident when i was volunteering my time to help put a new public radio station on the air. I developed persistent nausea, headache, and running nose. From there it got worse: Pinched nerves, numbness, reduced cognition, and sense of smell and taste gradually disappeared. Problem is greatly exacerbated by head or jaw movement. After a month I started to lose weight. I got a G-tube placed for tube feeding due to swallowing problems and malabsorption, losing as much as 55 lbs, with my lowest weight being 94 lbs.”
Next came a series of consultations and surgeries. The medical bills started piling up. Todd was forced to resort to credit cards to pay some of his costs and you know where that goes. Now he faces $60,000 in debt.
“These bills are specific to payments to doctors, specialists, health organizations, and medications, but not housing, travel, apparel, etc.,” Urick writes. “I would not normally ask for assistance. I hate doing this — but I have maxed out my credit cards. A donation of any amount will really help, and all funds go exclusively to medical bills.”
The good news is that lots of people have come through for Urick. The best news would be if more people contributed to his fund, helping him reach his goal of $15,000. After I finish this post, I’m going to go stick my credit card number in the Todd Urick GoFundMe machine. Everybody at Radio Survivor hopes that you will too.
