Fundraiser planned Saturday at Oakridge bistro for youth who was severely injured in car accident

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Oakridge-Westfir community has rallied to the aid of 18-year-old Ashton Tilton, the Oakridge High School Class of 2021 valedictorian, who was critically injured in a single-car accident near Hills Creek Reservoir on Sept. 11. A GoFundMe.com campaign has raised nearly $48,000 for Ash and his family, and residents will gather Saturday, Oct. 9, for a fundraiser at the Middle Fork Bistro in Uptown Oakridge, set for noon to 7 p.m. Ash’s grandfather, Bob Tysoe of King City, has written the following update for The Herald:

Thank you for your kind interest and encouragement about a human interest story about Ash Tilton. It means a lot. Ash is an unusual person with character qualities that strike to one’s heart, yet we have not begun to see all that Ash has to offer the world.

He has received donations and compassionate messages from Perth, Mount Isa, Townsville and Brisbane in Australia, from Philadelphia, Texas, Seattle, California, Portland and Eugene, Oregon State University, and very importantly, Oakridge, Oregon, which has rallied to his side to support him in dozens of ways by hundreds of people.

He was near death on two occasions. He fought back. He had his right leg amputated, it got infected and he fought back; he suffered 20 strokes caused by fat emboli from crushed bones and lost the use of his right arm and he fought back; he suffered 16 strokes in one day, was in a coma for five days, and he fought his way back to consciousness; he lost part of his memory, his ability to speak or reason, he did not even recognize his Mom and still he fought like an angel to regain what he had lost; he developed a massive hematoma which should have calved clots to all parts of his body and killed him, but the hospital surgical staff refused to quit on Ash, and after another of the unending urgent surgeries it was removed.

And then he fought like a tiger to get out of bed and restart his physical and mental rehab programs with the help of no-quit nurses who would not give up on this no-quit kid.

This Saturday the town of Oakridge is holding a fundraiser for Ash. Local newspapers and at least one TV station will be there to tell Oregonians about the goodness of small-town America, who have donated, prayed, cried and cheered for Ash.

Little kids remember Ash made an ice cream for them while he worked at the local Dairy Queen, and young mountain bikers know him because he fixed their bikes and gave them directions to the best trails.

They donated to his GoFundMe campaign in small amounts, but it was all they had during these tough economic times and a crippling pandemic. He will be discharged from the hospital’s rehab center in Eugene soon, and he will return to a modest home in beautiful Oakridge, to his loving and devoted single mom and Oakridge school teacher, Robin Tysoe, and all his family and friends, and strangers who are touched by his grit, the twinkle in his eye, and his humble character.

How much more could I say about my stubborn-as-heck hero, my grandson, Ash Tilton. Oh, the tales I could tell. Get to know him. It only takes him an instant for him to look you in the eye and accept you, and then to begin messing with you.

Thanks ever so much for caring about Ash!

— Grampa Bob Tysoe