Ball State's student-run radio station will be accepting donations for the Dallas Chambers fund, which was started for an injured student who has been in a deep coma for more than a month.
Dallas Chambers was struck by a car while trying to cross a four-lane road in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., early on March 1. He suffered several fractures to the leg and a blow to the head and underwent emergency surgery at the Brower Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Candice Skinner, Chambers' aunt, opened an account at the Ball State Federal Credit Union March 25 after the family was informed that it would need to pay $13,000 up-front to transfer Chambers to Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis. At the last minute, however, Chambers' family was told that their insurance would cover 80 percent of the cost, Skinner said. The family took out a loan against its house to cover the rest of the cost.
Junior Alex Graessle, assistant general manager of WCRD, heard about Dallas Chambers' accident that left him in a coma and decided WCRD should do something to help. Although Chambers' family was able to pay the $13,000 to transfer him from Florida to Indiana, there will be future costs because there is still testing and other care to be paid for, he said.
"He's a fellow student, and we need to do what we can," Graessle said. "I know if [other students] were in the same kind of situation, they would appreciate any amount of money donated to them."
WCRD is taking donations in its office in Ball Communications Building room 132. Every day, a WCRD employee will take any money that is collected to the Ball State Federal Credit Union and put it in the Dallas Chambers fund, Graessle said. The radio station had received $20 dollars as of Tuesday night.
"I think it takes special people to do things like this," Skinner said. "I'm speechless. It's nice to have the support and, believe me, he needs it right now."
Skinner said Chambers' condition has not changed since the accident and doctors will not say when or if they think he will wake from the coma. Doctors cannot make a prognosis of his condition until he wakes up either, she said.
The Dallas Chambers fund will remain open as long as it needs to be, Skinner said. But she said she isn't sure how these things work because she has never had to open a donation fund before. The last statement from the Credit Union said the fund had about $355.
Although WCRD has only received $20 for the fund, Graessle said any amount of money will help.
"If we raise $5 or $500, we're just trying to get as much as we can to help this family out," he said.
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