Manchester Woman Giving Back To Hospital That Saved Her Life

MANCHESTER, NJ — "They left such a mark on my life. They gave me a second chance." Hannah Donner pauses for a moment, then goes back to describing the fundraiser she is spearheading.

Hannah Donner, a Manchester resident and student at The College of New Jersey, has organized a paint party — Paint It Forward — for Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Participants will pay to paint ceiling tiles with inspirational messages and positive scenes that will then be installed in patients' rooms at the hospital in Neptune.

“I’ve been wanting to say thank you,” Hannah said in a recent phone interview. But finding a fitting way to thank the medical staff who got her through the first hours and days where her survival was in doubt following a near-fatal car accident on Route 530 in Manchester in September 2016 has been vexing.

Paint It Forward will be held this Sunday, April 7, with the main event at 10 a.m. at the Trenton Hall Lawn at TCNJ, where Hannah, now 20, is finishing her sophomore year of college. There will be piles of ceiling tiles and paint and brushes, all donated. It’s $10 per tile to participate ($15 the day of, with a maximum of five people per tile), and the money will go to Jersey Shore University Hospital for programs to assist patients. The tiles will be put up “to inspire wellness and recovery for patients and their families.”

“I wanted to do something to give back and leave a mark, because they left such a mark on my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”

‘A much stronger person now’

The fact that Hannah survived the crash that Friday night 2½ years ago was a miracle in itself. The fact that she has recovered so significantly — doctors initially told her parents, Tom and Donna, that she might never return to school, let alone go on to college — is a testament not only to the medical care she received but to the iron will Hannah exudes.

“The accident doesn’t define me,” she said, reflecting on how far she has come since the first time we spoke in November 2016. She was just 8 weeks removed from the crash at that point, and had been recovering at home, but was still getting her bearings on her life. Looking back now, she said the initial months afterward were difficult.

“At first I was embarrassed,” she said, because people around her knew more about her accident than she did. “It was awkward. People knew about it before me.”

It was hard feeling so exposed, but the support from so many of those around her helped.

“Now I embrace it,” Hannah said. “I have a better outlook on it.”

She was not able to continue playing volleyball, the sport she fell in love with in high school and was planning to play at Georgian Court before her accident.

“I sometimes still feel like that's missing,” Hannah said. Taking its place, however, have been efforts to help others. She is a member of Best Buddies at TCNJ, which fosters “1-to-1 friendships between students with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. And she has been organizing Paint It Forward, which she has taken on with as much determination as she did her recovery after the accident.

“I don’t doubt myself,” she said, whether it was contacting the hospital about her idea, asking Home Depot to donate the paint or getting approval for a room at TCNJ to hold the fundraiser.
“I’m a much stronger person now.”

“My accident taught me you can do anything,” Hannah said. “You might need help, but that’s okay.”

Finding inspiration

“Doing something good like this makes me feel good,” Hannah said of the fundraiser. Figuring out how best to pay tribute to the doctors and nurses and staff who kept her alive when her survival was being counted in minutes had been something she had been considering for a while.

“I wanted to do something to give back,” Hannah said.

Her mother, Donna, shared the details of Hannah’s miraculous survival and initial recovery as Hannah returned to school two months after the accident. Doctors initially told Donna and Tom that their daughter might never return to school. That she might not walk again. They could not give a prognosis of whether Hannah would have long-term brain damage from the crash, and if she did, what the scope of it might be. Read more: Ocean County Teen's Recovery From Near-Fatal Crash Simply Miraculous

Hannah was stronger than anyone realized. She went home 13 days after the accident, and demanded to go back to school, even when the neurologist wasn’t sure she was ready.
“I was like, ‘Who is he to tell me I can’t?’ ” she said, laughing at the memory.

The determined spirit has been a constant. She graduated from Central Regional High School in Berkeley Township in June 2017, on time and with her classmates. Read more: Nine Months After Near-Fatal Crash, Teen Girl Is Set To Graduate: 'I Never Doubted It'

Initial lingering effects have healed for the most part, and though she has had numerous surgeries, those are coming to an end.

“I have one more (surgery), and it will let me sneeze again,” she said, explaining so far, sneezing has been painful so she’s held back when a sneeze has come on.

Hannah also has found a close, comfortable group of friends and a boyfriend where she can just be herself — a niche that’s hard to find with some of her peers because while the accident doesn’t define who she is, it has changed her approach to life.

“It made me slow down and appreciate life,” she said. Before the accident, she was involved in a number of activities and busy all the time, and she attributes that go-go-go approach to why she fell asleep behind the wheel that night. "I was pushing myself hard all the time," she said.

“I relate to people who have been through trauma better, too,” Hannah said. Life-changing events give you a different perspective, and sometimes she finds people who hear her story for the first time are uncomfortable and will shy away.

“I don’t impose my issues on others,” she said, but she shares her story because she wants people to see their own strength. “When I saw it (how strong she’s become) for myself, it became so real.”

“I want people to know they can do anything they want to,” Hannah said.

Beyond the remaining surgery, she has tentative plans for her future. Hannah is studying sociology and environmental science, and hopes to spend five weeks in Madrid immersing herself in Spanish as part of a study abroad course. Beyond that, she is planning to join the Peace Corps or the Americorps after graduation.

“I just want to help people,” she said. “I like the feeling that it gives you when you help people.”
Which brings her back to Paint It Forward. She was inspired to do the tile-painting party during a class at TCNJ.

“I saw someone had done it as an art project at an elementary school,” Hannah said. It was just what she had been looking for to not only give back to the hospital but to help other patients. “I was a (Make-A-) Wish child,” and being able to lift the spirits of other children is important to her.

“People are really excited about it,” Hannah said, a happy tone in her voice, of the tile-painting. There have been a number of people who signed up immediately, including friends and co-workers from the Rosenauer School in Jackson where her mother works. The daughter of one of those co-workers runs an art program for people with disabilities and that woman has contacted Hannah to get tiles. “It’s a fun thing to come do with your friends.”

Jersey Shore Medical Center is supplying the tiles and she hopes to fill as many as possible of the 400 tiles she has with messages of support to inspire those who are in the hospital.

“People just want to be involved,” she said. And for that, she is grateful.

If you would like to buy a tile and participate, you can contact Hannah at hannahdonner67@gmail.com. Payments for tiles or donations to the fundraiser can be sent to her via Venmo at hannahmdonner.

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