On July 19, Jessie Benenson experienced a mother's nightmare.

While Benenson was waiting with her young children to cross the street at the intersection of Southeast Flavel Street and Southeast 72nd Avenue, a car jumped the curb and struck her 18-month-old daughter, Rosemary, and her 5-year-old son, Harry Strong.

Rosemary suffered only minor harm. Harry's injuries were more serious. With a significant skull fracture, the boy's brain was bleeding. It was July 24 before he opened his eyes again.

"He was unresponsive for a whole week after the accident," says Melissa Baker, the family's next-door neighbor in the Mount Scott-Arleta neighborhood. "It took him another bit after that to gain his strength back and his speech back."

Harry remained in the intensive care unit at Doernbecher Children's Hospital until July 26, then was moved to Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel.

The community rose up to rally around the family in their time of crisis.

Friends of Benenson and her husband, Ian Terrell, organized a work party to complete the family's project of refinishing their floors, underway prior to the accident. Free babysitting was arranged to help Benenson's mother look after Rosemary while Harry was in the hospital.

The cat got fed. The garden was weeded. The laundry was done. And there was a massive amount of food.

"We mowed the lawn and did anything we could," says next-door neighbor Alex Baker. "People just stepped up to handle things."

Benenson says friends organized a party at the site of the accident -- complete with glitter and magic wands, in honor of Harry's love of wizards -- to "cleanse" the area of its sad association. Another friend sent the family her son's New Orleans Audubon Zoo T-shirt to replace the one Harry had been wearing the day of the accident.

Harry even received a package from Afghanistan. A soldier there heard about the accident and wrote Harry a letter, accompanied by a scorpion encased in plastic and some coins to play with.

Harry Strong Benenson benefits

What:

Two fundraisers to help the family of Harry Strong Benenson, a 5-year-old car accident victim, with his medical bills.

Silent auction and concert:

8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, Tonic Lounge,

Admission:

$7 suggested donation at the door

Information:

Silent auction:

1 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, at Lucky Labrador Beer Hall,

Admission:

Free

The outpouring of support didn't stop there.

Alex Baker -- better known as Alex Fast to fans of Portland garage punk -- went to work organizing a benefit to help the family cope with what are sure to be hefty medical bills.

"The Tonic (Lounge) just gave us the night right away," says Baker. His band,

, is joining with Land Between the Lakes, Wizard Rifle, The Decliners, Shannon Tower Band, DJ Hwy 7 and MC Amanda Arnold to raise money for Harry.

Portland authors including Chelsea Cain, Monica Drake, Karen Karbo, Cathy Lamb, Jessica Morrell, Deborah Reed, Cheryl Strayed, Elissa Wald, Shannon Wheeler and Lidia Yuknavitch have donated books to the event.

"Everything is going directly to the family," Alex Baker says.

"Hopefully between the (benefit concert and silent auctions), it will help put a dent in the bills," says Melissa Baker. "It just seems so unfair to have to go through all that, and then have to have the financial burden on top of it. It's awful."

Due to potential legal and insurance issues, Benenson declined to estimate the cost of Harry's care -- from his hospital stay to the therapy he will need.

"I'm very overwhelmed and surprised by the whole thing," Benenson says. "There's no way that I can thank people for the amount of love and generosity that they've showed us. ... The only thing we can do really is to pass it forward, and keep aware of when other people are having a hard time."

Melissa Baker notes that people who don't even know Harry have volunteered their time and services.

"It seems like we do have a good community down here."

Nearly a month after the accident, Harry is back at home and playing catch in the yard with the Bakers' daughter. Benenson says he's testing within normal limits for his age, and that he will enter kindergarten at Portland Village School next month.

"The people in our lives who were sending their wishes and their prayers and their teddy bears and everything to us made it possible for Ian and I just to be extremely strong and just to keep it together to take care of our son and to help him get better," says Benenson.

"That's just something that I can never repay adequately. It kept us together, all the love that we got."

-