When we started Maria’s Love Foundation in April of 2014, our main goal was to simply help people. We did not know exactly how we could help or even who at that moment, but just knowing that there are so many people out there who need support from others, gave us a reason to reach out to the community. Those feelings gave us the strength to lead us on the right path. Very soon after, we heard of an unfortunate accident. A young man, from our Greek community named Anthony Michaelides, had been in a terrible motorcycle accident. Without hesitation, we knew we wanted to help. At the time of the accident, Anthony Michaelides had been living in Los Angeles, California, where he became a big part of the community. Anthony had a dream to help people pursue their own dreams. He founded an organization called “The Dream Tree”, which took place in a park in downtown LA. The purpose of this organization was to help young adults realize what their dreams were and to lead them on the right path to help make their own dreams come true. He received a grant to complete The Dream Tree and ended up helping over 200 adolescents, who had all written and hung their dreams on the tree. Soon after Anthony’s accomplishment, on Father’s Day 2014, he got into a terrible accident. He was driving his motorcycle and unexpectedly slipped on gravel. He found himself holding onto a guardrail but could not hold on for long and fell 100 feet to the ground below. He sustained multiple severe injuries, after which the doctors only gave him a 5% chance of survival and expected him to remain in a coma for 1-1.5 years. With Anthony’s amazing strength and the amount of prayers and love he was receiving from everyone around, especially his family and friends back home in Queens, NY, Anthony was discharged from the hospital in California only TWO months after his accident. Anthony has beaten all odds and is currently back home in NY continuing his rehabilitation to get him back where he needs to be. This is a story of how HOPE, STRENGTH and LOVE can achieve miracles. We were so proud and happy that we were able to help Anthony with some of his medical bills for the numerous surgeries he had to undergo.