Legacy of community support lives on through Matt Stever Fund

Eric’s family was supported by the Matt Stever Fund in “the most difficult time of their lives.”

It’s been 12 years since Mary and Roger Stever said goodbye to their young son – but the legacy of the importance of community love and support lives on, through the Matt Stever Memorial Fund, which launched its dedicated website this week.

The fund was created to assist families in the area who suffer hardship due to family crisis specifically, but not limited to, hardship caused by the severe illness, accident or death of a child.

Matt Stever

“When our Matt was critically injured, our family was tremendously blessed by the outpouring of love and support from our community. In turn, we hope that families in our community who are burdened by injury or sickness of a child can also be assisted by the Rotary Club of Picton Matt Stever Fund,” state Mary, Roger, Mike and Jenny, on the website.

Matt was a promising young Prince Edward County man who was living and teaching English in Taiwan when he was seriously injured in a head-on collision of motor scooters in January 2008. His condition was stabilized at hospital long enough for his parents to arrive in Taiwan on an emergency flight.

The community rallied to raise funds to help the family be at their son’s bedside in hospital, and bring him home after he passed.

The community outreach led the family to set up a fund to allow other families in heart-wrenching experiences to have the benefit of the same kind of support they were offered in their time of need.

With the leftover funds, they established the Matt Stever Fund in memory of their son. The fund is administered by the Rotary Club of Picton. Currently, it is being supplemented by fundraisers in memory of Matt Stever which have been put on by many local organizations, as well as individual donations.

In 2018 the fund, and community residents, assisted Picton resident Andrea Taylor to help cover costs for an abdominal procedure only available in the United States. At that point she was only able to eat intravenously. The surgery was life-changing. She is now well, and eats with an appetite, and no pain.

The website also shares photographs of some children who were assisted by the fund, and testimonials from grateful parents.

Vicky and Lincoln Cowan note they were moved to tears when the Matt Stever Memorial Fund assisted them.

“This allowed us to put our focus where it needed to be, with our son at Sick Kids in Toronto.”

Jill and David Akey stated the fund helped them in the most difficult time of their lives, alleviating some of the emotional and financial stress they faced when taking their son to chemotherapy in Kingston.

“We will be forever grateful for their kindness and generosity.”

Applications for assistance are on the website. You can help the fund help others, by making donations online. Click here: www.mattstever.com