Local Fundraising Appeal: Trooper J. Lawson

This web site generally looks for topics that are not being covered in the newspapers, but, having mentioned fundraising appeals on behalf of people's medical expenses, I'd like to mention one that can be verified.

Gate City does not often see a real high-speed car chase. A few weeks ago, however, the police had set up roadblocks at the state line. A drug dealer from Tennessee ran out of the road and sped around the roadblocks. When police pursued, the dealer (in a minivan not built for high speeds) and police (in cruisers that were) roared through town at over 85 miles per hour. Then the dealer, apparently afraid of losing his way in unfamiliar territory, turned around, rammed a cruiser knocking it into another vehicle parked beside the road, sped back through town, and wrecked the van. Perhaps unfortunately, the drug dealer survived.

State Trooper Jamie Lawson also survived, but has been taken to a hospital in Atlanta for special medical treatment. Donations are being collected at New Peoples Bank outlets on behalf of his family.

Local people can read about this in local newspapers. We can verify all this, because many of us saw it happen, and some of us know the Lawson family personally. Local people can drop their spare change into boxes when we go to the bank.

If you're not local and would like to contribute money...in view of yesterday's post, I'm asking you not to e-mail money to this web site before doing some verification. Here's a link to the report in the Virginia Star: http://www.virginiastar.net/index.php/z_news/article/virginia-state-police-investigate-crashes-following-tuesday-afternoon-traff/

Phone numbers (sorry, they don't welcome e-mail) for New Peoples Bank branches: Jackson Street, Gate City: (276) 386-9300; Weber City: (276) 386-6090.

My guess would be that the bank is able to accept e-money directly from those who wish to send it and thus save me an extra mile's walk. So please don't send money to this web site on behalf of Jamie Lawson if you can possibly transfer funds directly to the bank.