Cooper Doucette, the Nashua youth paralyzed during a football practice 11 years ago, at Holman Stadium with Ray Keefe, the Holls man raising funds to replace Cooper's specially equipped van. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – Eleven years ago this month, on the first day of practice for the Nashua High School North football team, the schedule for the day showed it was time for the tackling drill to start.

A little while into the drill, attention was suddenly drawn to one of the players who appeared to be injured.

A sophomore named Cooper Doucette lay on the ground, having sustained an injury that, a friend said later, “looked innocent enough” at first.

But Doucette did not get up. It quickly became apparent he couldn’t get up.

Then, the chilling realization: “It appeared he may have injured his spine.

“Unfortunately, he had.”

Those are the recollections of Ray Keefe, a Hollis resident who has spent much of his formerly-spare time organizing fundraisers for people struggling emotionally, physically and financially due to illness or injury.

Keefe, whose fundrraisers include an annual Polar Plunge at Seabrook Beach, met Doucette and his family about 10 weeks after his injury.

Keefe said he wanted to dedicate the next Polar Plunge to Doucette, and donate all the proceeds to him and his family.

Doucette and his father – Cooper and his brother lost their mom when they were children – accepted Keefe’s offer, and in no time “the 2011 Polar Plunge was set up for Coop,” Keefe said.

Now, a decade later, Keefe’s top priority is and now Keefe’s top priority is raising the funds necessary to replace Doucette’s specially equipped van, which is on its last legs.

The van had belonged to Keefe’s father, and upon his father’s passing Keefe donated the van to Doucette.

Unfortunately, time and high mileage have caused “time to run out on the van that was once my dad’s … Coop needs a new van desperately,” Keefe said.

The goal is to find one less than two years old and with 30,000 miles or under, which are the conditions under which the state will agree to modify the vehicle to Doucette’s specifications.

So far, a previous Polor Plunge benefactor, Sandy Dubuque-Grimes, has gotten the fundraising campaign off the ground with a generous $2,000 donation.

Two anonymous donations have come in, “so we’re off to a good start,” Keefe said.

He set up several methods through which donations can be made.

One is through Venmo, send to @Ray-Keefe and reference Cooper Doucette.

Another is PayPal; send to info@prepressplus.com and note “Van/Cooper Doucette.”

To donate through the GoFundMe account Keefe set up, go to www.gofundme.com and search “Cooper Doucette.”

For donations by check, make it out to Sandra Dubuque-Grimes and mail to Ray Keefe, 63 Nevins Road, Hollis, NH, 03049.

In order to make a tax-deductible donation, make the check out to the Church of the Good Shepherd and mail to Keefe at the above address.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.