I want to take a few minutes give some background on the Move the Gorski’s fundraiser that you may or may not have heard about.  If you have been following our story, you are aware of some of the challenges facing my family. Many of these challenges revolve around trying to raise a special needs family and some are not. Here is some background for those new to this blog and our lives.

Some Background

Recently, violence has been spilling into our neighborhood. Anyone familiar with Canton, Ohio knows that we have an ever increasing problem with gangs. Where we live is kind of a grey area, it’s not bad but it could be better. Over the past month and a half the violence has increased to a point that my wife and I no longer feel safe. We have had a double shooting, a stabbing and most recently a drive by shooting. I gave first aide to the young man that was stabbed. I was a paramedic for a long time and I had never seen someone stabbed that badly before. The stabbing and the shooting resulted in 2 homicides.

The drive by shoot was our closest call yet. My wife and son were getting out of our car in front of our house when we heard 8 gunshots. Gunshots in real life don’t sound like they do on TV so it took a second to register. As I was walking around to the back of the van, a SUV came speeding around the corner. As they came around the corner the front and rear passenger windows came down. I couldn’t see anyone but they saw me. I was standing about 8 or 10 feet of the curb and they veered sharply to the point of almost losing control of the SUV in an attempt to run me down.

I thought my wife and son were still in the van so I thought that they would be concealed inside the van. I honestly thought I was going to be shot and/or run down. The only thing I could think to do was get away from the van so that if they did shoot at me, it would be away from my family. So I ran behind the tree in front of our house and  I just closed my eyes.

At the last sec the SUV swerved away, just missing our van and took off up the alley across the street.

In that last second, I heard the clanking of metal hitting the ground. When I collected myself and looked, I found 2 loaded semi-automatic handguns. One landed about 3 feet from me and the other in my neighbors driveway. I would later learn that the one that landed by me was a .45 millimeter and the other was a .9 millimeter. On both guns, the hammers had been pulled back and there were still several rounds left in the clip.

The police were on the scene within seconds because they had been working a domestic around the corner. The shooters fired 8 rounds at the Police. They actually shot at the Police.

After everything had settled down, I learned that my wife had already gotten out of the van when they were trying to run me down. The gun had landed with the clip against the curb and pointed at where my wife had been standing. The police said the we were lucky because the guns could have easily gone off.

Anyway, that was the last straw. We decided that night that we had to get our family out of here. Emmett witnessed me almost getting run down and Elliott watched out his window the aftermath of the stabbing unfolded in front of our house.

We have been spread extremely thin dealing with Gavin’s major health issues and everything going on with Lizze and Emmett.

The Kindness of Others

I was approached by Matt and Jillian McCabe about setting up a fundraiser in order to help us move. I’m very uncomfortable with people helping my family, because it’s my job to do that. However, over the past year I did put up a donate button on my blog after many people had asked me to. I have also learned that I simply can’t do some of this on my own and if someone offers a helping hand, it’s okay to accept it. Honestly, if the roles were reversed, I would be doing the very same thing. My goal with this blog has never been to solicit anything from anyone. I only seek to share our story and try to raise Autism Awareness.

After speaking at length to Lizze and getting to know Matt and Jillian over the last couple of months, we decided to accept their offer to help. This was not easy for me to do, as I rarely ask for help and have never asked for help on this blog. However, I feel like my back is up against a wall. I need to get my family to a safer location. We have been lucky so far but how long will that last?

We are so incredibly grateful for the McCabe’s taking it upon themselves to reach out and help our family. They have launched a website call Move the Gorski’s.  I am so incredibly humbled by this gesture.

However, I don’t want anyone to feel obligated in any way, to donate. We all have our share of challenges in life and our own families to worry about. Please know that I understand that. However, if you decide to donate, know my family is extremely grateful for your generosity.

As far as where we will be moving too, I don’t know yet. We have been looking over the past few weeks but haven’t been able to find anything. We are trying to do this right the first time because this is going to shake up my kids world and I only want to do this once. We have expanded our search farther and farther and are just waiting to find a place that will be better than where we currently are.

My reason for writing this is because I want you to hear about this from me. If you have been following our story and gotten to know me, you know I’m honest to a fault. If you feel uncomfortable about this in the slightest please don’t donate, honestly, it’s okay, I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable about this. I’m uncomfortable enough for all of us.

Again, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not feel obligated.

Thank you