AED Placed at Brack Sheck in Memory of Young Man Lost in Car Crash
by James Coulter
Several years ago, Jason McNeer, the son of Shalbgeen”Geenie” Sutton, passed away in a car crash. The young man had been involved as a team member with Kick Yo Butt BBQ, a barbecue team led by Bracken Smith.
As such, both Geenie and Smith decided the best way to honor the memory of her son and his close friend was to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) installed at the Brack Shack in Auburndale. So, Geenie had an AED donated.
On Tuesday evening, Melanie Brown Culpepper and a few other volunteers from her organization, Culpepper’s Cardiac Foundation (CCF), donated and installed their 41st AED at the Brack Shack, a popular barbecue eatery in Auburndale.
Melanie met Sutton through her son Jason. Sutton offered a generous donation to support CCF when it first started. And Smith has catered Melanie’s events and fundraisers with his award-winning barbecue. As such, it only made sense to Melanie to return the favor by donating an AED to the Brack Shack.
“Well, one evening, I was thinking about when I started CCF and how she [Sutton] was one of the ones who helped me from the beginning by that 1st donation,” Melanie wrote on Facebook. “I felt like she should be able to place an AED in memory of Jason to keep his memory alive…So when we got together to talk about where to place the AED in Auburndale, what better place to put it than The Brack Shack.”
Melanie started CCF more than three years ago following the untimely passing of her fiancée, Michael Culpepper, from cardiac arrest. Not wanting to see anyone suffer a similar fate, Melanie has donated more than 40 AEDs through Polk County through the proceeds raised from her organization.
Smith felt honored to have the AED donated and installed to his business, especially since Jason was “a great friend and teammate of Kick Yo Butt BBQ team.”
“Feels secure knowing that we could save a person’s life thanks to this wonderful foundation,” he said. “Our community is lucky to have [Melanie and CCF] and all that [they] do.”
Geenie was likewise honored to have the AED donated in honor of her son. She appreciates that a life can potentially be saved in memory of her son’s own life.
“It was both gratifying and humble to know that I was privileged [to play] a small part in being able to donate an AED in memory of my son,” she said. “Jason loved working with The Brack Shack Team, and from the stories Jason would tell, it was more like grilling and chilling with friends than working!”
Patty Horning Whiting, Jason’s ex-girlfriend, was pleased to know that Sutton considered her and her daughter a part of their family, and she likewise appreciates the AED being donated in his honor.
“It makes my heart so happy for his family and community that Ms. Geenie contributed to the AED donation in Jason’s honor, knowing Jason’s memory will live on in a way to help others is just so beautiful,” she said. “I would like to say how Melaine has taken the pain of her loss into a passion of caring and commitment to community is truly something to be admired. She’s always been a warrior for the community being next to her for several years of different events. This is a whole new level.”
Another close friend, Steven Gillette, who had known Jason for 15 years, also had some words about the AED donated in his friend’s memory: “To be honest, being a part of this is absolutely humbling and I feel honored Honestly I feel Jason would be proud of all of us to have an AED donated in his name. [It] means more than anything really.”
