Fundraiser set for pilot injured in Wasilla crash last year

EAGLE RIVER — A year after Eagle River’s Jeff Bara suffered major injuries in a mid-air Wasilla plane crash, his wife continues to marvel at her husband’s fighting spirit.

“It’s a miracle that he’s even able to walk,” said Tami Bara during an interview Friday at an Eagle River coffee shop. “He’s a miracle.”

And it’s not just Tami who thinks that. Jeff Bara has a small army of friends pulling for him, which is what led to an upcoming fundraiser planned to help the Baras with medical and other expenses. The fundraiser is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, in Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer. Tickets are $35 per person or $250 for a table of eight, and include dinner catered by Gobblers Grill, a no-host bar, silent auction and live auction. Live music will be provided by Steve Pahkala and Diana Zitmanis, better known as “Diana Z.”

Proceeds will go to the Bara family to pay for Jeff’s 24/7 in-home care, which is not covered by their insurance. Having an at-home provider will allow Tami to go back to work.

Meadow Lakes resident and local teacher Debbie Waisanen said she and her husband are longtime friends of the Baras. Waisanen was at a church talent show when she received news of the January 2015 crash via text message, she said, and was fairly certain Jeff was one of the pilots involved. When she later learned the extent of his injuries (a Frontiersman account of the collision described Bara emerging from the wreckage with a tree limb in his chest) Waisanen was amazed he survived.

“He had a guardian angel on his shoulder,” she said.

Long road ahead

Jeff’s recovery is expected to be long and slow, but he’s showing signs of continual improvement. The Waisanens hosted the Baras and a few friends at their home last week — on the one-year anniversary of the crash — and though the number of people seemed to overwhelm him a bit, Jeff was able to communicate and move around without a wheelchair.

“To see how far he’s progressed, it’s incredible,” Waisanen said.

The other pilot in the crash, an Alaska State Trooper, suffered moderate injuries in the crash and recovered.

After the accident, Jeff spent almost nine months away from home in medical facilities at four different locations, from Denver, Colorado to Omaha, Nebraska and back to Anchorage at Providence Alaska Medical Center and later St. Elias Specialty Hospital for rehabilitation.

“He had to learn everything all over again,” Tami said.

Jeff was in Nebraska when he regained the ability to talk, and the first phone call he made was to his Mexican-American “amigo,” Jerry Munoz, back home.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Send me some enchiladas!’” Munoz recalled.

Tami said Munoz’s enchiladas have been one of Jeff’s favorite meals since the Baras moved in next to Munoz and his family about 16 years ago. Munoz took care of the couple’s two dogs, Jazz and Sadie, while they were out of state. With donations from the Anchorage Lowe’s where Munoz works and the Eagle River Fred Meyer, he was also able to decorate the deck at the Bara home with flowers for their return home last October.

Munoz said his availability to help his friends and neighbors on their journey is not a coincidence. He lost his job at Alaska Waste shortly before Jeff’s accident, and found himself glad of the time off when he realized his friends needed him.

“I wouldn’t feel good about losing my job but it was meant to be, for me to be on this journey with them,” he said.

Since they’ve known each other, Munoz said he’s come to view Jeff as “a true Alaskan,” despite Jeff’s New Hampshire upbringing.

“He’s a survivor,” Munoz said. “You could take him very far away, and drop him in just his underwear, and he would come back in a bear suit with a pot full of food and overweight.”

That survival instinct seems to run in the family. Tami said Jeff’s father, a West Point graduate and Vietnam War veteran, survived stepping on a land mine — in addition to numerous jumps out of planes — during the war.

“Jeff’s a Bara,” Tami said, in illustration of his will to live. “There’s no such thing as ‘can’t’ for him.”

A friend in need

Jeff was never one to shy away from the adrenaline of a hunt, either. Tami said her husband has been a registered hunting guide since the 1980s, working for business owners like Steve Perrins of Rainy Pass Lodge. Jeff is also an avid fisherman, though on at least one trip to Rabbit Slough in the early 2000s, Tami “outfished him,” she said.

Jeff obtained his pilot’s license in the early ’90s, she said, and flew his own plane on many professional and personal hunting trips. He went out with Mindy Stefanski’s husband, Joel, on more than a few occasions, and in the process forged a formidable bond.

But Jeff and Joel have more in common than a love of the outdoors.

Both men hail from New Hampshire and met while working for Matanuska Electric Association. In 2008, Joel was badly hurt while repairing old climbing poles for the lumberjack show at the Alaska State Fair. He was secured to one of the poles when it snapped near the bottom unexpectedly and fell 21 feet, landing on the ground with Joel pinned underneath.

Joel was volunteering for the fair at the time of the accident, and many people knew of his predicament. A couple months after Joel’s fall, friends Dave and Judy Snyder of Wasilla arranged a fundraiser for the Stefanskis at Raven Hall, which was attended by hundreds of people.

Mindy said that’s why she and her husband knew just what to do when Jeff was hospitalized.

“They (the Snyders) already had a boilerplate for us to follow,” she said.

Mindy remembered how hard Joel worked to get better just so he could be at his own fundraiser, which she and Tami hope Jeff will be able to do.

“When we get to the fundraiser I think it’ll be déjà vu,” Mindy said.

Tami added that MEA has also been very supportive during her husband’s ordeal and that the cooperative said it would keep Jeff’s job open for him once he’s ready to return.

“I just can’t say enough good about MEA,” she said.

If one thing is clear to the Stefanskis, the Baras, and Munoz, it’s that there’s a reason Jeff and Joel are alive.

For Tami, lots of little coincidences lead her to believe her husband’s recovery is preordained: the fact that she and Jeff both came to Alaska in 1982, without knowing each other; that Jeff got stood up by his date, years later, at the Lucky Wishbone where Tami worked; that he taught her many survival techniques before his accident, so she could go on without him, if necessary; and that the number of his room at St. Elias matched the Psalm a priest prayed over him before the accident — 121.

“There’s no doubt in my mind — the Lord has spared Jeff because he’s got great things to do,” Tami said.

Mindy said she observed Jeff recognizing his own life’s importance during a family cabin trip with the Baras. In a conversation with Joel about their accidents, she said Jeff spoke a memorable line about the men’s similar experiences.

“I didn’t know they were so short-staffed, to keep you and me,” Jeff joked with his friend.

“I will never forget that,” Mindy said.

Tami said she’s proud and honored to be Jeff’s wife, as well as blessed to have such a huge amount of support from friends, family and previously unknown members of the community in the last year.

“Living in Alaska, we have limited resources,” Tami said. “But the one thing we do have is people. People that help people.”

Tickets for the fundraiser are for sale at the following locations: Greatland Welding and NonEssentials in Palmer; Three Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla; Boondock Sporting Goods in Eagle River; and Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage. Joel and Mindy Stefanski are also selling tickets individually, and can be reached via email at bara.fundraiser@gmail.com. Monetary donations can also be made to Jeff and Tami Bara through Wells Fargo Bank account no. 3629957550.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Fundraiser for Eagle River residents Jeff and Tami Bara, to cover medical and living expenses. Festivities include dinner, no-host bar, silent and live auctions, and live music.

WHY: Jeff Bara was seriously injured in a mid-air plane crash on Jan. 31, 2015, and is still recovering.

WHEN: Saturday, March 26, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

WHERE: Raven Hall, Alaska State Fairgrounds, Palmer.

COST: Tickets are $35 per person, $250 for a table of eight. Can be purchased locally at Greatland Welding and NonEssentials in Palmer; Three Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla; Boondock Sporting Goods in Eagle River; and Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage. Joel and Mindy Stefanski are also selling tickets individually, and can be reached via email at bara.fundraiser@gmail.com. Monetary donations can also be made to Jeff and Tami Bara through Wells Fargo Bank account no. 3629957550.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story omitted Munoz's first name and stated Bara was a lieutenant colonel in the Army. It was actually Bara's father who retired as a lieutenant colonel.