We are deeply saddened to announce that our founder Chayton Alo was in a near fatal accident earlier this month. A pickup truck collided into Chayton on a sidewalk and he survived only by a miracle. His injuries are severe and long-term, and he sustained an 'extreme' brain concussion as he was hit into the sidewalk. The medical team has advised him that he has 'near-certain, long-term brain damage' pending a series of high-level tests including live brain mapping and brain MRIs. Chayton also sustained facial scarring and left eye socket injuries. While a full recovery is possible, it will take 'at least a year' to recover cognitive function and loss of short-term memory recall as well as motor functions. Likely he will never look or be the same person but the right medical care can potentially restore his future.
As a result of this tragic event, we have decided to suspend The Luthier Bench marketplace for a 30-day period to re-allocate all organizational resources and funds towards this expensive diagnostic and cognitive rehabilitation process. If you can and would like to assist Chayton through this difficult period, we have set up a GoFundMe page which you can access by clicking the donation box at the top. You can also donate by clicking on the Paypal link (which will allow Venmo or credit card donations). But, we urgently invite you to help Chayton return to his dual passions of assisting workshops to sell handcrafted guitars and finally finishing his first acoustic build, which remains post-accident his central albeit difficult dream. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at 828-808-7000. We thank you in advance for your support so we can heal Chayton and re-launch our luthier marketplace.