Dozens shave their heads to support teen recovering from injury

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A recent Wakefield High School graduate continues his road to recovery after sustaining a traumatic brain injury last month. On Tuesday, crowds of people gathered for a fundraising event to help with his medical journey.

It’s been an arduous past six weeks for Rob Walter and his family. Last month, his son John accidentally fell from a moving vehicle in a Raleigh neighborhood.

“It’s been tough, it’s been a roller coaster,” Walter said. “We went from getting the call, to telling he’s going to be a quadriplegic, or maybe not live another 60 hours, to him moving his legs within three hours of that.”

Through these tough times, the support from the community hasn’t waned.

“An indescribable of support and love that I’ll never be able to say thank you enough for,” Walter said.

Tuesday, that support continued in a big way. Dozens of people got their heads shaved at “John A Thon”, a fundraising event to show support for the recent graduate.

“It’s super moving for everyone to come out here,” said Brynn Taylor, co-owner of The Collective. “These young kids jumped right out to shave their heads off to be like John.”

Taylor and her co-owner Shelby Hogan say they came up with the idea to host the fundraiser after recently shaving John’s brothers hair.

“Five hours later, it turned into a massive fundraiser,” Taylor explained.

A portion of sales at Rudinos Heritage in Wake Forest Tuesday, where the event was held, benefitted John’s GoFundMe . The GoFundMe is raising money to help with ongoing medical expenses, as well as any treatment that will be needed in the future.

“He’s moving all of his arms and legs, he can move his lips to songs,” Walter said about his son’s progress.

It’s progress Walter says wouldn’t have been possible without the continued outpouring of support from the community. “A week, 10 days into it, they told us he had less than a 1% chance to live,” Walter said. “But we believed, everyone here believed, and so many other people believed and prayed.”

John’s dad says his son should be out of the ICU soon. As of Tuesday, the GoFundMe has raised over $42,000.

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