William McKay
William and Susan McKay with Their New Van
Following high school William attended Diablo Valley College where he majored in restaurant management. His restaurant career consisted of cooking at major private dinner parties in the bay area for up to 2500 people at a single sitting. For the next 20 year, however, his day job was spent doing semitruck trailer repairs while owning his own business in commercial and residential construction. Perhaps that was due to his father’s influence, who had been a superintendent for a large construction firm in San Francisco. William’s early work led to stints where he was both an employee and supervisor for several large commercial properties where he was involved in all phases of construction. Following that he was the senior building maintenance supervisor for UC Davis student housing, and after that he was the purchasing manager and safety administrator for a metal products company. About 20 years ago he went to work as a sales estimator and project manager for a construction firm in Vacaville, California that built custom home, home additions and did remodeling and restoration work. Following that he became director of maintenance for a luxury apartment/condo complex, where he supervised a staff of personnel while also working with outside contractors for turnarounds and maintenance.
While there, he fell off a 40-foot ladder while carrying down roofing material!
When he landed, he twisted his ankle and felt a pain shoot up through his spine. His doctor told him he had a compression in his spine which affected his piriformis muscle and sciatic nerve. The piriformis muscle runs from your lower spine to the top of your thigh, and aids in almost every movement of your lower body. When he tried to stand, his leg and ankle went limp. His doctor put him on permanent disability, and these injuries have worsened with age. At present, he is almost full-time in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, the employer where he was working and was injured went out of business.
Meanwhile, his wife was injured in an auto accident which also required her to use a wheelchair. Her insurance would pay for the cost of a van conversion but would not pay for the cost of a van. Both William and his wife are on disability, living month to month from their 401(k). That leaves no room to buy a van or afford a car payment. In his application William wrote, “My wife and I live a simple life. Our old van just died so now we have no transportation. I pray your foundation can help us get a new vehicle.”
Thanks to our many donors, however, we were able to fill the gap and provide William and his wife with the funds they needed to purchase a 2018 van.
The mobility dealer the foundation worked with on this endeavor was the same one we had worked with to provide another family with a van in 2019. In this case, both William and his wife are able to drive, so both the driver and passenger seat were removed, and wheelchair locks installed. A track system and hand controls were installed to accommodate whichever of the two would be driving. Following the renovation, the McKay’s wrote to the foundation and said, “what a blessing this foundation has been to us. Their wonderful gift has provided us with a beautiful van that we will treasure. It will help us so much with having safe and dependable transportation! What a blessing! Thank you again!”