Jesse Holleman was a Wake Forest kid. He went to our local high schools and grew up here in Wake Forest among good friends. But recently Jesse was injured in a bonfire accident in Youngsville and is now unable to work while he recovers.
Jesse isn’t the only local person involved here. Wake Forest residents who have visited Experience Salon Studios may recognize Jesse’s fiancée, Jennifer Knowles, in the picture in the video.
On Wednesday morning I went to visit Jesse in the burn unit at UNC Chapel Hill. Jennifer was sitting with him when I arrived.
While Jesse now lives in Raleigh I still think that since he grew up in Wake Forest and the accident happened in Youngsville that we can still show him some of our local Wake Forest love and generosity and help him raise some money to assist during his recovery.
Wake Forest News readers have been so generous in helping others in trouble that I thought maybe we could rally behind Jesse and give him some of our generous local help as well. If you can, maybe you could consider making a donation of any size through this link. He’s going to be out of work for quite some time.
With his injuries, Jesse will not be able to return to his regular duties as a plumber any time soon. He has a lot of healing to do.
Surgery is coming up where skin will be shaved from his legs and grafted onto his arm and hand to help regrow skin that was lost in the accident.
He’s going to be dealing with a lot of pain in the weeks and months ahead. Life is going to be tough.
Jesse readily admits the accident was stupid and that from his days as a Stony Hill cadet firefighter he should have known better than trying to light wet wood for the bonfire that his friend had soaked in gas. The minute he got about a foot from the gas soaked logs with his lighter there was an explosion. The skin on the back of his hand immediately began to blister and fall off. He has deep 3rd degree burns on his arm and you can still see burn damage to the side of his face.
Please help Jesse if you can.