How to help: To help the Flores family renovate their house and to find a suitable wheelchair for Carlos Flores, call 303-833-3533 or 303-807-5753. Baby-sitting services are available for those who want to take the bus to Black Hawk on May 12. Volunteers are needed, too. Text 970-373-8828 for more information.
FREDERICK — From bracelets and window stickers to garage sales, the effort to raise money for Carlos Flores and his family continued last week.
Flores, a former Frederick High School student and football player, was paralyzed in a car crash almost 10 days ago. Doctors moved him to Craig Hospital in Englewood last week for more extensive recovery efforts.
Before the latest round of fundraisers (there were 22 at the start of last week), the school estimated thousands of dollars had been raised to renovate the Flores home in Fort Lupton and to put Flores in a suitable wheelchair once he leaves Craig Hospital sometime this fall.
On Friday night, people poured into the American Legion Hall in Frederick for a benefit spaghetti dinner. The Rev. Louis Arambula Sr. of Saint William Catholic Church in Fort Lupton said he’d been to see Flores at Craig Hospital earlier in the day.
“He was in good spirits,” Arambula said. “He was in his chair. He wanted to put it in high gear, but he found it was too fast. So he put it down to turtle speed.”
Tables in the Frederick High School gym April 30 were full of opportunities to help the Flores family, including poker tournaments, T-shirts, a softball tournament, this weekend’s casino trip to Black Hawk, a poker run, a car show, bake sales, wine tastings, raffles and events to tie in with this fall’s Miners Day events.
A videotape of the April 30 community meeting at Frederick High School will be available to Flores. It included more testimonials from adults and his friends.
“My promise to you, Carlos, is you will lead a purpose-driven life,” said Rhonda Frenzel, special-education teacher and fundraising coordinator. “This is simply a new beginning. We will make you realize that giving up is not an option.”
“To see how this community has come together tells me how blessed I am,” FHS Principal Pete Vargas said. “It’s been a challenge seeing the pain in these kids’ eyes as a parent and as their principal.”
Former FHS quarterback Matt Lamb said one of his goals in school was to become Flores’ best friend. He made it happen on a camping trip.
“Ever since, we have been inseparable,” Lamb said. “The doctors say he has a 12 percent chance of walking. If I know Carlos, he’ll take that and run with it.”
“We’ve been brothers for a long time,” said KC Rivera. “He showed strength on the football field and where he is now. I know he appreciates your support a lot.”
Travis Letkomiller, who spent much of Flores’ first week by his bedside in a Loveland hospital, said Flores was one those people you meet “and you know they will change your life forever.
“There is that connection no one else can define,” he said. “Sometimes, bad things happen to the best people for no reason. I know he will walk again.”
At least four more fundraisers are on tap this month. The McDonald’s on Highway 52 west of Interstate 25 is donating all of its proceeds from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 10, to the Flores family. A casino bus trip is set for May 12 to Black Hawk. Tickets are available through Frederick High School. Call 303-833-3533.
A car wash is planned for May 19, and a combination 18-hole golf tournament and pig roast is set for May 27 at Bella Rosa Golf Course. Another has been scheduled for the Noodles & Co. in Greeley (4318 W. Ninth Street Road) from 5 to 10 p.m., June 8. Twenty-five percent of sales go to the Carlos Flores Foundation.
Updates of future fundraisers are available online at http://on.fb.me/JbOirk.
“I have never seen such support,” Arambula told the crowd Friday at the American Legion. “If the whole world would be as supportive as this, it would be a better world.”
Contact Sports Editor Steve Smith at 303-659-2522, ext. 224.
