By Captain Pyke | February 1, 2011 - 8:14 pm

UPDATE - Anyone that donates to the Daryl Frazetti Fundraiser, will get free Subspace Communique stickers as a thank you from us. Check out the full details here.

If you are a fan of Star Trek, then chances are you’ve seen Trekkies and Trekkies 2. Now, despite your personal thoughts of the movies, I’m sure we can all agree that the fans they featured on these films are some of the most devoted and heartfelt fans Star Trek has. One featured fan in particular, Daryl Frazetti, has become a good friend of ours here at Subspace Communique. You probably remember Daryl from both Trekkies and Trekkies 2 as the guy that dressed cats in costumes. He often reminisces about that time in his life and laughs that his naive younger self thought that would be a great way to pick up chicks. Although, we aren’t sure of the number of dates the costumed cats procured for our friend, we are sure that that bit of notoriety got him noticed within the educational community and allowed him to begin teaching courses, part time, relating to the Anthropology of Star Trek (among others). He’s even writing a book about the subject that will be released in the near future…heck, if you read our site you may even be part of the book if you took the survey he was running several months back.

Now, Daryl needs our help! Daryl has Spondylolisthesis. Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a bone (vertebra) in the lower part of the spine slips forward and onto a bone below it. His case is actually spondylolisthesis with an L6, missing 2 discs (the slippage may be greater than 1-2 degrees) stenosis, and a crushed L5 nerve. And if this wasn’t enough, because of his spinal condition he recently slipped, fell, fractured and dislocated his knee. In light of the back condition and now his knee/leg injury he’s barely able to move around his apartment and not at all able to drive himself to work, errands or medical appointments.

Now the kicker, unfortunately, his part time teaching gig doesn’t come with insurance. As you can imagine, medical bills, medication and paying for rides to campus (41 miles away) add up quickly. With a part time job he’s been turned down for government help and without the government help he may lose the job. It’s a vicious circle. But here’s where we fans come in. We can rally around Daryl and show him the support that he would get if he were living in the 24th century; only right here and now!

We’ve set up a Fundraiser PayPal account for Daryl and we’re asking all of you who are able, to help out this fellow Trek fan in need. (You can use a credit card or make a donation directly from your own PayPal account). Anything you are able to donate will help him out greatly! Nothing is too small or too large. At this moment in time his most pressing needs are for driving assistance (gas and rides) and for medical expenses, in particular prescriptions and a specialized MRI that alone costs over $800.

These needs/figures may not sound like a lot, but to him it would mean the world. And knowing that Star Trek fans have rallied to his aide would lift his spirits, which physical pain and exhaustion have so lowered. As we’ve said before in other articles and posts; this is what Star Trek is all about…people helping people!