Imagine this: You’re fresh off a celebration of a friend’s wedding, then you wake up four weeks later in a hospital with no recollection of how you got there.
That’s what happened this summer when Drew Mason of Virginia Beach was visiting buddies in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. According to a police report, he fell while crossing the road and was run over by a pickup truck. He was transported by MedFlight and treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
His mother, Karen Mason, was chaperoning an eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., for Cape Henry Collegiate when she found out. Kirsten Dodzik, Drew’s former Spanish teacher and Karen’s colleague of 18 years at the Virginia Beach private school, was on the trip too.
Drew spent nearly a month and a half at the hospital, undergoing several surgeries to fix collapsed lungs, repair a broken pelvis, and heal punctured organs. As the drugs wore off and healing started, so did the pain.
“I don’t think I’ve heard the f-bomb said so many times in such rapid succession and in 1 sentence,” Karen wrote in a journal she calls Caring Bridge. Even in such pain, she said, her son maintained his famous wit. “I think he was even trying to flirt with the nurse,” Karen wrote.
“That hospital delirium is no joke, but Drew managed to find the humor in the humbling and uncomfortable situations in which he often found himself at the mercy of his caregivers,” Dodzik said in an email interview. “Laughter is medicine and thankfully, Drew’s innate sense of humor will help him during his recovery.”
Fellow CHC alums and local musicians will be celebrating that wit and helping a friend Sunday by giving a concert at Back Bay’s Farmhouse Brewing Co. in Virginia Beach. A percentage of beer sales will go toward helping Mason’s piling expenses. A gofundme site has been created for the same purpose: gofundme.com/f/DrewMason.
The event came about when Dodzik and coworker Brian Facemire were at a work function, soundtracked by “our school’s faculty band, we realized that we, along with this incredible group of caring people, had the power to help in some capacity,” she said. “Another beer and another song later, Brian and I were all in!”
“I loved the idea immediately,” said Overman, a CHC alum and former student of Dodzik’s. He’ll be serving up his blend of folk, rock, and country on Sunday. “With the help of other CHC faculty and artists … we were able to get the ball rolling.”
He was glad to help out a family he’s known for years. While Overman was closer with Drew’s younger brother, Will, he tangled with the older Mason in varsity lacrosse. “Drew was one of the older guys I remember running circles around me,” Overman said.
Joining him on the lineup is the fun-filled surf rock of J. Flax and the Heart Attacks. A former student of Karen Mason’s, frontman Jeremy Flax “wanted to be part of the event because I wanted to do what I could to support Karen and her family.”
Also a former CHC teacher, Flax will open the show alongside the same faculty band that sparked the event’s inception.
For those who aren’t beer fans, or who like dessert with their brews, another family friend and CHC alum, Tyler Brooks, will be bringing ice cream. His company, Daddy’s Ice Cream, created a special edition called “Mint to Be Here.” Proceeds from the sale of this mint chocolate chip ice cream will also go to the fund.
Drew Mason, 29, continues his recovery at home, confined to a wheelchair. Karen Mason hopes he’ll be well enough to start walking this month. She wrote that: “Our entire family is humbled and honored that so many have come together to help Drew in his recovery.”
Dodzik said of the Cape Henry Collegiate community: “We are a family.”
“It is a genuinely happy and caring place where students, staff, faculty and alum feel like they are part of something greater than the institution itself,” she said.
if you go
What: Go Fund Me Sunday Funday with Will Overman and J. Flax and the Heart Attacks
When: 1-6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Back Bay’s Farmhouse Brewing Co., 1805 Kempsville Road, Virginia Beach
Tickets: Free, with percentage of proceeds going toward medical bills for Drew Mason
