HILLSBOROUGH -- Town of Hillsborough employees are raising money for the family of a fellow employee whose granddaughter was paralyzed in a car accident April 10.

Six-year-old Khari Clark-Hester, a rising first-grader at Central Elementary School, was injured in an accident on N.C. 86 North. Her car was turning into the family's driveway when a pickup truck hit the car on the passenger side where Khari was sitting. She suffered damage to her brain and spine and is paralyzed from the waist down.

Khari is the granddaughter of Malcolm Hester, a water plant operator for the town, and Sucovis Hester, data manager for Grady Brown Elementary School in Hillsborough.

She will live with her grandparents when she is released from Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte on Monday. She was in intensive care for five weeks at N.C. Children's Hospital at UNC before moving to Levine's rehabilitation center. Her 2-year-old sister, Zoi, and her mother, Heather Clark, also were in the accident, but both are fine now. Zoi was hospitalized for one night.

Hester's co-workers are raising funds to help the family with costs associated with caring for Khari. Immediate needs include building a wheelchair ramp outside the Hester home and obtaining a second medical car seat.

In addition to a raffle for a gas grill cooker donated by Orange FFA, employees are sponsoring a golf tournament at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Grove Golf Course. The cost is $50 per person, with $22 going to the golf course for green fees and $28 going to the Hester family fund. The tournament will be captain's choice, with teams of four. The organizers -- Lead Meter Reader Ricky Clark and Utility Maintenance Technician 2 Nathan Cates -- hope to sign up 18 teams.

Awards for "Closest to the Pin" and "Longest Drive" will be given. Door prizes also will be awarded, with the top prize being a round of golf for four at Pinehurst, which was donated by the resort. The raffle drawing will occur at the tournament, and tournament participants will receive a barbecue supper.

To participate in the tournament or to buy a raffle ticket, contact Ricky Clark at 644-2433 or Nathan Cates at 563-1468. Raffle tickets are $5 each or $20 for five tickets.

Once home, Hester's granddaughter will need speech and physical therapy. Doctors hope to be able to remove a feeding tube in three months.

"She's learning to dress herself now," Hester said. "Over a period of time, she'll be able to slide herself around. We're hoping she'll go back to Central in the fall."

Therapists also are helping Khari to find her balance point.

"When she first came, they couldn't even stand her up," Hester said. "Her blood pressure would drop out."

Khari now is able to stand strapped to a board for about an hour each day, which is necessary for proper development of her bones while she is growing still. She is able to draw during that time, and she is going to school at the hospital.

"She's cheerful," Hester said. "She's working hard, trying to do everything that the therapist and everybody else are trying to get her to do. But she said she's ready to come home.

"We know it's a little different, but we're glad to have her here. We're glad she's alive. We're going to make her life as best as we can. There's still a 10 percent chance that she could walk again, so we will never give up."

Khari's family and Hillsborough town employees thank everyone for their thoughts and support.