Employees Raise Funds for Mark’s Recovery

Sundance Vacations employees united together this past Saturday, May 21 to help a fellow employee in need.

In early November of last year, Sundance Vacations employee Erica Smith and her family’s lives changed forever when her husband Mark was struck by a speeding car.  Mark was working a construction site as a traffic flagger on Route 29 and Lake Avenue in Bridgewater Township on November 9, 2015 when the incident occurred.

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Mark is on the road to recovery and is hoping to one day be able to walk again without a wheelchair.

He was flown via helicopter to Geisinger Community Medical Center where he was confirmed to have suffered broken ribs, skull and back fractures and other injuries as a result of the collision. Mark also had to have his left leg amputated above his knee and is now using a wheelchair.

Six months later, Mark has since undergone many surgeries and is making progress to find his “new normal,” but he still needs help.

This past Saturday, friends and family gathered from all across the Smith’s Luzerne County community at the Quoit Club in Nanticoke for a fundraising event they called Mark Mania.

This eight-hour event took place from 1 to 9 p.m. and featured basket raffles, a 50/50 drawing, musical entertainment and great food and activities to raise funds to put towards Mark’s recovery.

Sundance Vacations donated a week of excess inventory for the basket raffle and other employees chipped in with baskets they made as well.

Erica tells Sundance Vacations that funds from this event will go towards covering Mark’s medical bills — adding up to nearly a million dollars — as well as to help pay for a specialized wheelchair to aid in his recovery.

The Smith’s appreciated all the lengths their friends and family went through to make this day special for them.

“We were blown away;” Erica said, “blown away at the outpouring of help that gave us the best day we have had since this accident.”

She also said she is grateful for the support from her coworkers, including her sister Diana who also works at Sundance Vacations, for both attending the event and helping bring it all together.

“I am so moved to work for a company that cares so much about us,” Erica said in a thank-you email to her coworkers at Sundance Vacations.

The man who hit Mark, Ethan Schumacher of Montrose, had been spotted by several witnesses speeding before the crash, even crossing the double yellow lines to pass cars in the construction zone according to WNEP Channel 16 News.

He is being charged with aggravated assault, speeding, reckless endangerment and was found to be under the influence of marijuana and other narcotics such as morphine during the time of the collision.

Erica tells Sundance Vacations that they have been so focused on Mark’s healing that they have not been thinking about anything more than his full recovery.  Mark is hoping to be able to simply walk again and maybe even drive one day.

To help support the Smith family on their road to recovery, please visit their Go Fund Me page: www.gofundme.com/cj9jd4zg

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Jennifer Villa
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