Benefit Ride Day for Ross Maeda

November 4, 2009, 9:35am

A letter from Donn Maeda:

Dear Friends,

As many of you may already know, my older brother Ross suffered paralyzing injuries in a crash at Starwest MX Park on September 25. Ross broke his T11 and T12 vertebrae, and for now, he is unable to feel his legs or walk. He is, however, making some great progress and remains determined and hopeful for a full recovery. As of today, he has regained sensation in his lower abdominals and down his right hip. Amazingly, he discovered a few days ago that he could move his ankles a bit!

Ross has completed his rehabilitation therapy at St. Jude’s Hospital and is scheduled to go home this Thursday, November 5. As you know, the costs associated with a spinal cord injury are astronomical, and much to our dismay, Ross’ HMO insurance is not as great as we had all hoped it would be. Our family is doing our best to band together and help Ross, but it has reached the point where we must turn to our friends for some assistance.

One December 6th, we are holding a benefit ride day for Ross at Perris Raceway. Jeff Nordstrom, Rick Johnson and Sebastien Tortelli have graciously donated the track for the day, and we hope to put on one hell of a fundraiser to help Ross with his continued therapy expenses. The Metal Mulisha jump team (plus Nate Adams) are putting on a show to help attract spectators, and we will be selling Rossi support bracelets, stickers and T-shirts.

How can you help? We are hoping to solicit donations from our friends in the motocross industry, so that we may conduct a raffle, a silent auction, and a live auction. We’ve even secured the services of a real, live, fast-talking auctioneer to help with the show…

If you can help with a donation of any kind, please contact me via e-mail at donn.maeda@transworld.net or by cell 714/425-8969. Or, product donations may be shipped to: Help Rossi, 226 North Maple Street, Corona, California, 92880.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Ross has been a figurehead in the motocross industry for over three decades. More importantly, though, he’s been my hero forever.

Thanks again,
Donn Maeda
Editor, TransWorld Motocross Magazine