GREENWAY, Minn. (Northern News Now) – The life-saving efforts of Ashkan Thibodeaux have inspired the Greenway community.
Earlier this month the five-year-old boy saved his younger brother’s life as he fell into icy water near a creek near Hibbing.
Now, Thibodeaux is fighting for his own life in a pediatric intensive care unit after needing major surgery on his internal organs.
Thibodeaux is also a member of the Greenway Mini Mites hockey team. A number of his teammates moms have now teamed up with a local clothing line to print out t-shirts with the saying “Stick together for Ash”.
Kayla Swanson didn’t hesitate to jump in to help when she learned what happened to Ashkan.
“I’m 31 years old and I’m looking up to a 5-year-old,” Kayla Swanson said. “This story has touched me in a way that I never knew possible, and I think all the mom’s feel that way.”
Swanson, and several of the Mini Mite moms pressed, printed and shipped out shirts. Shirts are selling for $25 with $15 going to Ashkan’s family. A GoFundMe has already raised more than $2,000.
“This is all to go to an amazing little boy so I’m not afraid to do anything to show my support,” Mom Lizzie Fillbrandt said. “We are small, but we are strong and we come together in times like this.”
Greenway’s population is less than 2,000, but the mom’s say they’ve already sold 1/3 of that. The effort is a reflection of Minnesota’s tight knit hockey community.
“I think everybody in the state of Minnesota can kind of relate to a hockey community rallying around their own,” Kayla Swanson said.
Updates on Ashkan’s health and recovery can be found on CaringBridge.org.
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