Help Mike Bird

On the evening of Thursday, April 14th 2011 the Buffalo hardcore community gathered at Mohawk Place to support Terror and Trapped Under Ice as they took the stage to play a show.

With plenty of pile-on’s, stage-diving, sing-along’s and an incredible vibe of unity and energy, the show got off to an awesome start.

However, what began as a good-old hardcore show ended in a tragic incident that has forever altered the life of one of Buffalo hardcore’s very own members.

MIKE BIRD, regular show-goer, hardcore kid, and a member of the Buffalo Straight Edge community, was knocked to the ground by a stage-diver. Hitting his back and head on the concrete floor, Mike had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance to be treated for his injuries. Unable to move his limbs, or feel any pain in his lower-body, Mike received emergency spinal surgery for his injuries.
The official diagnosis indicates that Mike broke the C5 and C6 vertebrae in his lower spine. With no feeling in his legs, it is unclear how soon 19-year old Mike will regain use of his lower body and be able to walk (or mosh) again.

Without the luxury of being able to afford his own health insurance coverage, this injury is crippling financially as well.
An ambulance ride, emergency room visit, sophisticated spinal surgery, X-Rays, physical therapy, and medication leaves Mike Bird with a medical bill that will most-likely amount to a six-figure sum. His lack of insurance and limited mobility will make paying this debt an impossible task.

The Buffalo hardcore community is banding together, pooling our collective resources and organizing benefit events to help offset Mike Bird’s medical bills.

WE NEED YOUR HELP.

The community aspect of hardcore is something that transcends the boundaries of cities, crews, cliques, scenes, and sub-genres.
We are ALL hardcore kids; we’re all cut from the same cloth.
We ALL go to shows, we ALL stage dive, and we’ve ALL had our share of mishaps.

It could have been any one of us in Mike Bird’s shoes.
He just happened to draw the short straw that night and get knocked down.
But as we all know, when someone gets knocked down in hardcore, we PICK THEM BACK UP.

Several benefit events are being organized within the Buffalo scene as we speak.
I’m told that both Terror and Trapped Under Ice are both on-board for a special merch-run related to this incident.

We have set up a PayPal account for donations.
100% of the money donated to this PayPal will go DIRECTLY to Mike Bird’s medical expenses.

If you have ANYTHING you can donate via PayPal, a quarter, a dollar, two dollars, please send donations via paypal to:
Sticktightbuffalostyle@gmail.com
NO donation is too small.
Mike Bird has NOTHING, so ANYTHING you can donate will add up.
If you have any questions about this fundraising effort, or want to help out and become involved, shoot me an e-mail at FrankNiemiec@yahoo.com
Thanks.
-Frank XXX
Copy this link to donate.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=DFjcmbHiPsXCI5DVy-td_DP2d0e7T80OIz3LtqAacQs956z7UNxFFlgC7kW&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d5863a909c4bb5aeebb52c6e1151bdaa9

original post at http://betterxtimes.blogspot.com/2011/04/mike-bird.htm