On February 4, 2008, Patrick Menedez, a pedestrian, was Hit by a Drunk Driver in Olympia, Washington

Patrick Menendez works as a support technician at ReachONE Internet. On his way home from work Monday evening February 4th, he got off the city bus and was then struck by a drunken driver in a Ford F-150 pickup truck about 8:15 pm. The driver of the pickup truck did not stop.

Fortunately, a concerned driver followed the truck to downtown Olympia -- calling the police -- where the police arrested the man and took him to St. Peter's Hospital to assess his level of drunkenness.

The incident happened at Pacific Avenue near Sawyer Street in Olympia. If you have information regarding this hit and run, you are asked to contact Olympia
police at 360-753-8300.

Patrick suffered a fracture in his hip, his left leg is broken in several places and his right knee was mangled.

For more information about the incident, please see The Olympian articles: 1st Article (pdf) published 2/5/08; 2nd Article (pdf) published 2/5/08; 3rd Article (pdf) published 2/6/08; and the 4th Article (pdf) published 2/15/08.

This website has been put in place by his fellow employees at ReachONE Internet, a full service Internet Service Provider (ISP), in hopes you will consider helping with a donation to the Patrick Menendez Fund. To make a donation, you can either click on the Donation button below and contribute via PayPal -- which takes VISA, MasterCard, AMEX or Discover:

or you may contact Avie Boyd of ReachONE Internet at (360) 456-5640 or 1-888-820-7559 if you have any questions.

If you wish to send a check, please make your check payable to: Mary Menendez and put "Patrick Fund" in the Memo Section and mail to:

Avie Boyd
ReachONE Internet
4500 3rd Ave SE, Suite 2
Lacey, WA 98503

Patrick, and his wife Mary, will obviously have many expenses that we all can help lighten the load with during his time in the hospital and recovery. Immediate funds are needed to help with food, rent, and daily necessities as Patrick won't be able to work for several months.

We'll do our best to keep you posted with his recovery process at this website.

Thanks for your concern and prayers for Patrick and his family at this time.

Sincerely,

The ReachONE Internet Team (Patrick's Work Family)

Fundraising:

Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 11am-3pm - Help Patrick, Mary and Izzy! Benefit Menendez Family at Hallen Hall, Sacred Heart Church, 812 Bowker Street SE, Lacey, Washington. Contact: Jill Middleton (360) 352-0899. Purchase great products for a cause! All profits go to Patrick & Mary. Products include: Mary Kay, Partylite, Cookie Lee Jewelry, Pampered Chef, and Tastefully Simply. Please download the PDF and post it at your bulletin board at work/church to let people know. Thanks.

Monday, March 3, 2008 - Fellow employees of Patrick at ReachONE Internet and sister company Custom Security Systems, held a bake sale (mmm, mmm!) fundraiser that featured gourmet breads, mouth watering cinnamon rolls and cookies of all kinds. Even the Postman stopped by and purchased a bag of cookies. The end result was over $300 was raised to help Patrick and Mary. Way to go team!

Thursday, February 14, 2008 - Fellow employees of Patrick at Custom Security Systems, a sister company of ReachONE Internet, held a chili dog (mmm, mmm!) lunch fundraiser today and raised just over one hundred dollars to help Patrick and Mary. Way to go team!

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If you wish to donate to help Patrick & Mary,
please click on the "Donate" button below.

Patrick Updates:

Sunday, April 6, 2008 - Read the article about Patrick by Diane Huber of The Olympian titled, "Sales help hit-and-run victim"

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Monday, March 31, 2008 - It's been almost 2 months since the accident and Patrick is recovering well. He has been home for just over a month, and began to walk a little around the house about 2 weeks ago. His injuries are healing well and this week he starts outpatient physical therapy. He is still in quite a bit of pain, but things are improving.

Izzy has enjoyed having her dad at home again, although he can't carry her around and play with her like they used too, he can participate in her favorite
activity which is reading books.

Friday, February 15, 2008 - Read the article about Patrick by Jeremy Pawloski of The Olympian titled, "Crosswalk visibility crusade of man struck by truck"

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - Patrick went in for surgery on both legs the afternoon after the  accident, 1 week ago today. He had a rod put in his lower left leg and pins in his right knee. The surgery went well and Patrick is recovering. He has been able to maneuver out of bed to sit in a chair, but that's about as far as he will be able to go for quite some time. He will not be able to put weight on his right leg for several weeks. His pelvis is fractured in several places and this causes him a lot of pain when he moves around. Patrick will probably move to a rehab center or nursing home for several weeks while he continues to recover. Thank you all for your generous support and good thoughts during this difficult time. We know we are very lucky, this certainly could have been much worse, and we feel very fortunate to have so many wonderful friends and family. - Mary

Tuesday, February 6, 2008 - Read Jeremy Pawloski's article "Police: Driver smelled of alcohol Hit-and run suspect has previous DUIs" from The Olympian regarding the inital report.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - Read Jeremy Pawloski's article "Olympia police ID driver who struck pedestrian; victim conscious and talking" from The Olympian regarding the inital report.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - Read Jeremy Pawloski's article "Police: Driver hit man in Olympia - 3 callers report erratic driving in Lacey area" from The Olympian regarding the inital report.