Beyond the Paycheck: The Story of Mark Kelly

Writing a weekly blog is sometimes a challenging task. Staying current and topical often means a lot of searching for online resources regarding payroll and HR. During my usual Google News search for "payroll" I came across an article that stuck out among the rest. While it only mentions payroll a few times, I thought this was a touching story that more people should be aware of. This is the story of Mark Kelly and his battle with ALS.

Mark has been a police officer in Mesa, Arizona for six years. For over two of those years he has been dealing with the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Normally this would mean that an officer in Mark's situation would have to take a medical retirement. But being on the force only six years would mean that Mark, his wife Elizabeth, and their five children would have to live on about $600 a month provided in the retirement package. Since July of 2010 Mark has been unable to work, confined to a wheelchair as he perseveres in the face of an uncurable disease. A medical retirement seemed inevitable.

However, if Mark were to die as an officer his family would be provided full retirement benefits, about four times the amount of a medical retirement. The Mesa Police Association rallied around one of their own and donated their unused vacation time to keep Mark on the payroll. Hearing of his situation, firefighters and other Mesa city employees began donating their vacation time. Over the past year thousands of hours have been donated to Mark, enough to keep him on payroll for the time being.

In February Mark was down to 200 hours of donated time, leaving him five weeks away from a forced retirement. Using an eye-tracking computer he typed a plea out to his Facebook friends, one letter at a time:

"Medical bills and living with ALS have depleted our funds to the point we are living paycheck to paycheck... The only life insurance I have is through the city. So in order to help my family I need to die working for the city, which is sad."

The response to his heartbreaking message was overwhelming; nearly 270 city employees donated more than 2,737 hours to Mark. Enough to keep him on the payroll for the next year. Unfortunately, Mark's time with his family can't be measured in years. Mark is now completely paralyzed, has a machine forcing air into his lungs, and is on a feeding tube because he can no longer eat. Mark's time is almost up.

The community response to Mark's situation tells me that there are still good people left in the world. Let this story serve as a reminder that your co-workers may be going through difficult times, and that when they ask for help you should be there to heed the call. Friends, family, co-workers, and even complete strangers came to the aid of Mark Kelly and his family; consider doing the same and reaching out for a cause that you feel strongly about.