PTC Unites to Support 2022 Pay It Forward Recipient 

Celebrating our students is a huge part of who we are at Pickens Technical College. People take the first steps towards their future at Pickens, sometimes even in the face of serious adversity. 

In this spirit, each year, PTC will award a well-deserving student with the proceeds from our Pay It Forward event. In keeping with the tradition of Noah’s Welding Rodeo (the vision of last year’s recipient was to “pay it forward” to other Pickens students facing similar challenges), this year’s beneficiary is an 18-year-old Advanced Manufacturing student named Michael. 

Michael is a talented artist and designer who struggled with asthma and Hereditary Elliptocytosis (also known as HE). After going through a battery of tests at Children’s Hospital, he was diagnosed with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia or Strumpell-Lorrain syndrome. Due to the nature of the currently uncured disease, he will continue to get worse, eventually becoming wheelchair-bound. 

Amazingly, Michael’s spirit and creative aspirations have not been dampened. What he needs is adaptive equipment to continue to create, see a bit of the world and live his best life. 

Pickens students, staff and supporters, let us unite as a community and help Michael in this endeavor by raising money for an R.V. so he can travel across the national parks, continue to nurture his creative drive, and feel truly fulfilled. 

For more information or to donate, visit our Go Fund Me webpage.