Lolo Palooza- Festival Fundraiser to Benefit Nevil Family

Jan. 25, 2013 - PRLog -- The sounds of music, laughter and family fun will echo across Arlington this weekend even as the guest of honor at Lolo Palooza (http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6tjzjahea4b46f6&llr=giazcjbab), 12 year old Lauren Nevil , lies in an ICU bed in Fort Worth’s Cook Children’s Hospital.

Lolo Palooza runs from 2-7pm Saturday, January 26th at The Grease Monkey (https://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=200+North+Mesquite+St.,+Arlington,+TX,+76011,+US) in Arlington.  The family-style event will include live music, bounce houses and face painting, as well as a silent auction.  Silent auction items include a signed Texas Ranger jersey, a guitar signed by a CMA country artist, Jeff Gordon autographed memorabilia and signed Saints gear, including a jersey and helmet.   Rangers starting pitcher Derek Holland tweeted (https://twitter.com/Dutch_Oven45) he will be at the event to sign autographs.

Lauren was critically injured during a Thanksgiving 2012 car wreck that killed her mother.  The former Arlington family was traveling to North Texas from their home in Tennessee when they were hit by a suspected impaired driver.  Steve Nevil has had to grieve the loss of his wife while hovering over his critically injured daughter through a series of dangerous surgeries and painful treatments, all the while trying to care for and maintain a family life for the couple’s 9-year old son.

Lauren continues to recover from a traumatic brain injury and has no short term memory.  Just this week, surgeons replaced a portion of her skull, which had earlier been removed to ease swelling of her brain.  The girl has also lost a portion of one foot, and faced dozens of painful treatments for the de-gloving that peeled the skin and soft tissue of that foot down to the bone.

The Nevil’s heartbreaking story has gained a massive Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PrayingForTheNevils) following where Steve, widowed in the accident that injured Lauren, posts “journal entries” keeping Prayer Warriors up to date on Lauren’s healing and recovery.

In the journal entries, Steve counts the “unexpected days in a hospital bed”- Saturday will be Day 71- and shares his daughter’s painful battle in a positive, powerful voice that nearly 150,000 people follow and respond to.

Steve Nevil is an Arlington native and the group of friends throwing the family-style fundraiser Saturday includes many he started Kindergarten with.  

“It feels as if we could never do enough to support Steve, Lauren and Will, and care for them the way Katy would have wanted them cared for,” says life-long friend and event organizer MK Davis.  “This family has lost a treasure of a wife and mother, and at the same time lived a horrific medical ordeal that is nowhere near finished. “

The fundraiser will help offset medical and living expenses for the family during Lauren’s continued recovery.