Family in need gets a hand

A community comes through for a family whose father recovers from a bike accident.

By BEN MONTGOMERY, Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2007

TAMPA - The cow came out of nowhere.

Michael Hampton, 38, a Gulf War veteran and father to four, couldn't avoid it.

Harley Davidson met cow on a back road in Wimauma.

His wife's cell phone rang as she picked the kids up from vacation Bible school on Bayshore Boulevard. Your husband has been in a motorcycle accident, the sheriff's deputy told Simone Hampton.

He wasn't wearing a helmet. His skull was fractured, and his brain was bleeding.

Then came panic. Then came the feeding tube and the brain monitor and the ventilator and the medically induced coma.

On Saturday, two months after the June 4 accident, friends and strangers came together at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in South Tampa to help Simone, 38, and the kids, ages 12, 11, 9 and 4.

Beth Christo of Century 21 List With Beggins presented the family with $2,000 from the company's charitable fund. And proceeds from a yard sale Saturday will go to the family.

"The community has just been awesome," Christo said.

Michael Hampton is recovering at Bay Pines Veterans Administration Hospital, learning again to walk and speak.

But he ran a lawn service, and the lost wages since the accident have put a strain on the one-income family.

"I think it's very great that they did all this," said Chase Hampton, 12, who can't wait to go fishing with his dad again. "I don't think there was any way we would have made it without all this."

Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

Fast Facts:

To donate to the family

Attn: Hampton Fund

Century 21 List With Beggins

2101 W. Platt St.

Tampa, FL 33606

Make checks payable to Century 21 List With Beggins

[Last modified August 5, 2007, 01:33:59]