The Pain of Meeting A Father Who Lost His Daughter......

[JoeyD23]

So now that I am on my comp and not on my phone I feel the need to elaborate on the days most important event. We arrived to where tech/contingency will take place tomorrow here in Vegas for the BITD Vegas 2 Reno Race Event. I decided that I would go talk to a few people who were already there and give them first crack at the Fast-Aid.org Memorial Ribbon Stickers that I had to try and raise money for the California 200 incident. I approach a group and ask if they would be interested in donating. Immediately Steve from Tracking International says "this gentleman was the father to the girl who lost her life..." My heart sank. I saw tears well up in his eyes as I began to explain that I am doing this on behalf of Fast-Aid and the entire off road community.

I explained that I know words cannot come close to replacing the feeling he must have but I assured him that we as a community do feel his pain and do want to do all we can to get behind him and his family to ensure that no other families have to endure this type of pain. He commenced to thank me, thank Fast-Aid, and thank the community for all the outpouring of love. He said this as he held back tears of obvious sorrow.

He then opened up a bit about the tragedy that took his daughters life. He introduced me to his daughter's friend who was with her that dark day, she too was injured and walking with a limp. He began to explain that he does not hold Brett Sloppy responsible for this horrific accident. He understands that this was exactly that, an accident. He does feel that the organization putting on this event does have responsibility in this and that it was their job to control this crowd and keep people back and away from the track, essentially enforcing the rules they have in place.

In all he was not trying to push blame, just saying that if there was anything that could have prevented this tragedy from occurring it would have been MDR keeping the people back off the track in one of the most popular spectating points of the marked race course. As a fan and advocate of off road racing it is hard for me to think otherwise, and in his state I am in no place, nor is anyone to try and tell him or anyone who is suffering otherwise.

At the end of the day I feel proud to be a part of this community. I feel proud to know some of the guys at Fast-Aid and feel proud to be able to go out and represent them and help them try to relieve some of these humans long term pain and suffering. I guess what I am trying to say is as the days go on following this event, the pain for these family, friends, and victims does not subside as quickly as the memories of those of us who were not there or directly involved. We all need to keep this fire burning, for a long time, for ever! We need to never forget those who lost their lives, and certainly not forget about those family members and friends who lost someone they love.

Fast-Aid FOR LIFE, and I pledge to NEVER FORGET those who lost their lives at the California 200.


http://www.fast-aid.org/california-200.html


Taken from our news blog:
http://utvunderground.blogspot.com/2...-lost-his.html

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[M.Harvey1600]

So now that I am on my comp and not on my phone I feel the need to elaborate on the days most important event. We arrived to where tech/contingency will take place tomorrow here in Vegas for the BITD Vegas 2 Reno Race Event. I decided that I would go talk to a few people who were already there and give them first crack at the Fast-Aid.org Memorial Ribbon Stickers that I had to try and raise money for the California 200 incident. I approach a group and ask if they would be interested in donating. Immediately Steve from Tracking International says "this gentleman was the father to the girl who lost her life..." My heart sank. I saw tears well up in his eyes as I began to explain that I am doing this on behalf of Fast-Aid and the entire off road community.

I explained that I know words cannot come close to replacing the feeling he must have but I assured him that we as a community do feel his pain and do want to do all we can to get behind him and his family to ensure that no other families have to endure this type of pain. He commenced to thank me, thank Fast-Aid, and thank the community for all the outpouring of love. He said this as he held back tears of obvious sorrow.

He then opened up a bit about the tragedy that took his daughters life. He introduced me to his daughter's friend who was with her that dark day, she too was injured and walking with a limp. He began to explain that he does not hold Brett Sloppy responsible for this horrific accident. He understands that this was exactly that, an accident. He does feel that the organization putting on this event does have responsibility in this and that it was their job to control this crowd and keep people back and away from the track, essentially enforcing the rules they have in place.

In all he was not trying to push blame, just saying that if there was anything that could have prevented this tragedy from occurring it would have been MDR keeping the people back off the track in one of the most popular spectating points of the marked race course. As a fan and advocate of off road racing it is hard for me to think otherwise, and in his state I am in no place, nor is anyone to try and tell him or anyone who is suffering otherwise.

At the end of the day I feel proud to be a part of this community. I feel proud to know some of the guys at Fast-Aid and feel proud to be able to go out and represent them and help them try to relieve some of these humans long term pain and suffering. I guess what I am trying to say is as the days go on following this event, the pain for these family, friends, and victims does not subside as quickly as the memories of those of us who were not there or directly involved. We all need to keep this fire burning, for a long time, for ever! We need to never forget those who lost their lives, and certainly not forget about those family members and friends who lost someone they love.

Fast-Aid FOR LIFE, and I pledge to NEVER FORGET those who lost their lives at the California 200.


http://www.fast-aid.org/california-200.html


Taken from our news blog:
http://utvunderground.blogspot.com/2...-lost-his.html

Joey great job handling yourself... it would have been hard to take emotionally... the father seems like a wonderful person. just the fact that he is at a race after the death of his daughter and not blaming the off-road community says a lot... I saw the news interview he was on... definitely a difficult thing to deal with

[JoeyD23]

Yes he was a very stand up guy and was surrounded by his daughters friends. I can only imagine what is going through his mind...who to blame, WHY, HOW? All these things. I gave him a hug, it was all I could do to truly show that although I cant feel his pain, I sympethize (sp?) and as a father I can easily sit back and put myself in his shoes to imagine what it is he is going through. Heck, just thought of losing one of my children is enough to make your stomach turn.

You just want to do so much more to help take their pain away. No one deserves to go through that. But like I told him, throuh his daughters death we will learn, and we will become better. It is no consolation, but there is positive that will come from this severe negative.

[M.Harvey1600]

Yes he was a very stand up guy and was surrounded by his daughters friends. I can only imagine what is going through his mind...who to blame, WHY, HOW? All these things. I gave him a hug, it was all I could do to truly show that although I cant feel his pain, I sympethize (sp?) and as a father I can easily sit back and put myself in his shoes to imagine what it is he is going through. Heck, just thought of losing one of my children is enough to make your stomach turn.

You just want to do so much more to help take their pain away. No one deserves to go through that. But like I told him, throuh his daughters death we will learn, and we will become better. It is no consolation, but there is positive that will come from this severe negative.

I am not a father but it sends chills down my spine... the thought of losing someone that shares a part of your soul.... my dad always jokes around why he has let me do all the dangerous sports he has is because HE COULD ALWAYS MAKE ANOTHER ONE OF ME!!!! always made me laugh but I know that if anything happened to me he would be devastated... I crashed racing BMX at the 99' California state championships and was in and out of consciousness for 12 mins... the doctors told my parents my neck was broken... needless to say it ended my BMX career... thats when I moved to cars... I had never seen my dad so distraught... thank goodness I didnt break my neck... but that didnt stop the doctors from pulling the plug on my BMX career... did that for 3 years and won several championships... but OFF-ROAD RACING IS SO MUCH BETTER!!! my dad is much more calm when I am behind the wheel than he ever was when I was on my bike... I took some serious chances while racing bikes...

[guycomer]

Wow-- that's a touching story, JoeyD23. Good on you for doing that. I have 2 young boys & can't even fathom the loss & what he (& others) must be going through.

[Cadwell]

great post joey!

[dan200]

Joey,

I can't thank you enough for all you have done and keep doing. I have spent the last few days fielding the calls and emails from these families to get the ball rolling to coordinate the assistance from Fast-Aid. All I can say it it has been one of the toughest things I have ever done so I can very much relate to what yer day was like. There are a million stories and I am still fielding them. Each tale of tragedy seems worse than the last one I heard. It has been rough but all of us at FA are pushing forward to help the healing.

I have found relief all over the place though. These people tell me things like "you are an angle", "You are doing God's work", "I can't thank you enough" etc. Then I check in on RDC and read up about all if the people outside of our board of directors and advisory board who have taken it upon themselves to coordinate their own projects like the sticker/ribbon campaign. I see the phrase "donation sent" everyplace. I get emails asking if there is anything besides giving money people can do to help. When I snapped my leg in half I laughed it off but all of these acts of goodwill have brought me to tears more times than I can count. In some ways they are tears of sadness and other times they are tears of joy. It all evens out. I also proudly shuck off the compliments and tell these families that without people like you and our many generous donors Fast Aid wouldn't be possible. "Don't thank me, thank them"

I could go on and on about the emotional roller coaster this has been but thats not really my point. Actually I am not even sure what my point is except to let you and everyone else know how grateful all of us at Fast Aid are for all the generosity you have shown with not only your money but with your efforts.

These are dark days that are upon us but in the end it will make things better and safer for the sport as a whole.

Again, thank you Joey and I wanna thank my good friend Kyle Callen also. He has probably not slept since the accident and has been my right hand all week. Both in coordinating the info as it comes in and as my support system. Actually I should thank everyone including the FA board and especially our President Jared. We have made some great progress together. We are a little beat up and a little tired but like any racer would, we are continuing with our race.

Sincerely,

dan200

PS. after re reading this post I realized there are a million people who deserve thanks that weren't included in my cursory list above like Pat, and Fish, and Ryan and 4130, and Klaus, and Curtis, and Jim and the Ashcrafts, and everyone who is working behind the scenes along side us. There are just too many people to list. I love all you guys. Thank you....

BTW it is just past midnight and Kyle just texted me. "Almost 3k raised tonight"

I am gonna get some rest now so I can get back to work in the morning...

[HDRA1]

joey

i am sorry i missed you i was there to meet with him and talk to him about FAST-aid i knew i was going to meet him there at the hotel and you happened to run into him trying to support his daughters. i think talking with him about the accident was one of the hardest things i have done in my life. his other daughter that you met she is all about the off road community she said she was told earlier "welcome to the desert family" . george antill daughter was friends with her sister and she wanted to be at tech and meet some of the drivers that she had always wanted to meet. and one of them was BJ Baldwin, as we were sitting there i was facing the door of the lobby bj walks in. and i motion for him to come over, her and her father could not beleave that she was getting to do some of the things she had just asked for i want to thank bj for taking the time to talk with her and her father.

i am still in shock of how much the desert family always comes together in the time of need it is going to be a long day today at tech and hope that some of you are there myself and others will be at the FAST-aid booth so please stop by and say hello and get some stickers and shirts

thanks Lucas Hand

[Manning]

Joey, my friend, good by you thanks brother

[BGRANT]

You guys are all doing a great thing. Being a father of two as well, it tears me up inside when I read these stories. I am glad that the community has rallied together in this dark time. My donation was sent, wish it could have been more. I didn't end up racing V2R but if there is anything I can do from here, let me know.

Race safe, spectate safe.
BG