Proud to be #WyoStrong

S
omeone once told me that Wyoming is just a small town with really long streets. Recent events have proven that this statement is unequivocally true.
Two weeks ago, Powell High School’s senior quarterback, Ethan Asher, was involved in a rollover crash on his way to school. The teen was thrown from his pickup and suffered serious injuries to his head, heart and spine. 
He was life-flighted to Billings where he underwent surgery to repair a tear in his aorta and was placed in a medically induced coma as doctors investigated the severity of the damage to his spine.
Initially, his mother Tiffani Asher shared on Facebook that Ethan’s spine was severed and that there would be no chance that her son would walk again. However, following a second, four-hour surgery, Ethan’s spinal cord was pronounced damaged, but “whole” by his doctor.
Tiffani Asher expressed her joy at this miraculous news, and noted that “whole” is exactly what she and her family had been praying for, for her son’s prognosis. 
The Ashers have not been the only people praying for Ethan. A prayer vigil was held in Powell the day following the accident. In their zero week contest against Riverton, the Powell and Riverton football teams knelt as one following the game to pray for him. The team in Columbus, Mont., prayed for him. 
Football teams and strangers from around the state of Wyoming have been praying for him, and Tiffani is crediting the power of prayer for the amazing progress her son has made thus far.
Not only is the community of Wyoming offering up prayers for healing this young man, but are also raising money to help with the financial burden that is growing larger by the minute.
Riverton initiated a fundraiser at the zero week game with Powell and at the volleyball tournament the next day, which netted $6,000. Natrona County passed the bucket in their contest against Cheyenne South for a 50-50 drawing in which half the proceeds would go to the Ashers. The winner of the drawing donated back their half of the winnings which brought the amount raised for the family to $2,484.50.
Our own Dogie football team was also moved to help, and at the home opener against Hot Springs, the team and Pinnacle Bank teamed up to raise $340 for Ethan and his family.
With all the negativity that can surround sports these days, it’s heartwarming to see the true value of athletics in schools. Though opponents on the field, Wyoming teams have shown themselves to be one big football family who have, and continue to, come together to support a brother in crisis.
Last Friday, Tiffani posted on Facebook that the fever Ethan had been suffering was down to 99.2, the drains from his lungs and brain had been removed and that he was breathing on his own with added oxygen. He was taken off the medication which was inducing the coma, however remained in a “self-induced” coma.  
While noting there is still a long road ahead, Tiffani wrote, “healing is happening and we are honored and humbled to be on this journey. We feel the strength in your prayers and love. God is not done yet!”
To see the outpouring of support and fellowship has reminded me — in a time when I sorely needed it — that people are good. 
It makes me proud to be #WyoStrong.