ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Eighteen years ago Jay Weston walked away from a job at Ford Motor Company to pursue his dream of becoming a teacher.

“I always wanted to be an educator,” he said. “I have several cousins who are teachers and an uncle who was a professor at Auburn University. I guess you could say it’s in my blood.”

Weston, a native of Birmingham, worked for the car manufacturing giant in Detroit, where he met and married his wife, Angie. They then moved to Atlanta and the company was planning to move them again to Buffalo, N.Y., when he made his decision.

“Buffalo was not exactly the best environment to raise a family,” he said.

So, Weston said, he quit his job, got his teaching certificate and landed a job in the Elmore County School System.

Over the next several years, he would work his way up through the system, first as a teacher, then an administrator and finally as an assistant principal at Coosada Elementary School. Angie, meanwhile, would also pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.

Then, in June of 2003, tragedy struck when Weston lost his left hand in an accident while the couple were working in their yard.

“I thought I was pretty handy with power tools, but I learned very quickly that I wasn’t,” he said.

Angie was cutting grass with a push mower when a piece of wire got caught in the blade. While he was attempting to pull the wire lose, the blade began rotating at top speed, severing his hand just below the wrist.

“I came really close to bleeding to death,” he said. Then, five months later in November, Angie suffered from severe heart problems and had to have an aortic valve replacement. Doctors told them her chance of survival was about 5 percent.

After she recovered, the couple decided to take another leap of faith, moving to the Alabama Gulf Coast to start over again.

“Through the years we would come down to the Gulf Coast as often as we could and always dreamed of moving here,” Weston said. “After we both suffered near-death experiences we came to the conclusion that life was too short and we decided to go for it.”

So the Westons sold their home in Wetumpka, and moved to Baldwin County. In the fall of 2004, the Westons’ two daughters enrolled in Gulf Shores High School and it wasn’t long before Weston found work, teaching special education at Foley Intermediate School. The following year he would get the opportunity to serve as assistant principal at Foley Intermediate and at Robertsdale Elementary.

“It was a little tough serving two bosses, but we made it work,” he said.

After just a few years, however, the Baldwin County School System announced that it was cutting administrative positions. Weston’s was one of them.

Administrators were given the option of going back to teaching and Weston volunteered for the opportunity.

“It meant a cut in pay and we would have to cut back on certain things,” he said. “But as long as I had the opportunity to continue to make a difference in children’s lives, we could make it work.”

So Weston went back into the classroom, teaching second grade at Summerdale School.

But in August of this year, the Westons’ lives were thrown another curve ball.

“Teachers had already reported back to school, but the students had not yet arrived,” he said. “My wife and I were working to repair a fence. She was cutting boards with a chainsaw while I held them.”

On one of the boards, she would hit a knot, Weston said. The chain would kick back cutting through Weston’s right hand.

“Needless to say we were scared to death,” he said. “Blood was squirting out like water from a water fountain.”

They grabbed a towel they were using to wipe away sweat away from their brows on that hot summer day and tried to stem the tide, but the towel soon became soaked through.

Fortunately, they were able to get to the Orange Beach Fire Department, where they were able to get help from paramedics.

“They did a wonderful job to try and get the bleeding under control,” Weston said. “Without them I don’t think I would be here today.”

Weston was taken by Life Flight to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. From there, doctors consulted with hand specialists in Kentucky, Tampa and Miami, Fla., in an attempt to save his hand.

“They all said the same thing,” Weston said. “A chainsaw doesn’t so much cut as it rips and by the time I made the long flight to one of the three closest hospitals, it would be too late to save my hand.”

In the ER, they began calling him “Unlucky Charlie.”

“I think it was an attempt to make us laugh. You know calm us down,” he said. “My wife wasn’t very calm and neither was I.”

So on Aug. 15, Weston found himself having to adjust to life without hands.

Things that most people take for granted, like picking things up, driving a car, eating, he will have to relearn. Things that are almost impossible to do without hands.

“I have a hook that I would wear on my left hand, but I can’t use it now,” he said.

Without hands Weston also can’t do certain things like write on a chalk board, and without that, he simply cannot do the job that he loves so much.

“That’s something I really want to stress to people,” he said. “I’m not doing this for me. As a teacher, I work with about 20 students per year. At age 50, I figure I’ve got about 17 years of teaching left. That’s hundreds of kids that I won’t be able to help if I can’t do my job. I am doing this for them, not for me.”

About the only option Weston has left is an expensive one, a pair of bionic hands and forearms, custom made in Austria, that will give him a full range of movement. The company imports only about 20 per year and two have been reserved for Weston.

Once they arrive, he will be custom fitted by a company in Fairhope called Hanger Prosthetics.

Now all he has to do is raise the money to pay for them. Each arm costs about $100,000. If approved, insurance will pay only about 60 percent of the cost, leaving Weston with the remaining bill, about $80,000.

“What we’re trying to do is raise about half the cost, or about $40,000,” he said. “If we can do that, it will be enough to get us started.”

At first, Weston said, he was discouraged by such a daunting task, but the community at Summerdale School has rallied around him.

“I’ve never seen a community come together so fast,” he said. “It’s been a very humbling experience.”

A parent of one of his students last year, Sheryl Boehm, got involved, setting up a Facebook page, Jay Weston Benefit. You can donate through PayPal by friending the site on Facebook, or by email at JWeston_Benefit@hotmail.com.

“In my 18 years of education I have never seen a parent so dedicated,” he said. “And it’s not just for me. She spends more time volunteering in the classroom that most teachers who are paid to be there. She is just a purely amazing person.”

Boehm has also organized a benefit for Weston. A Family Fun Day will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 2 at Oak Hollow Farms in Fairhope.

There will be live entertainment, a raffle, draw-down, silent auction. Barbecue chicken dinners will also be sold for $10 per plate with free hotdogs for kids.

Draw down tickets for $100 are available with a chance to win $5,000 as well as other prizes.

Tickets can be purchased at the event, or via Facebook and PayPal. In addition, Weston said, he was contacted by the Southern representative of the Alabama Education Association and was told the National office has a benefit set up for teachers who have lost a limb. Weston’s benefit will come to about $5,000.

“That will certainly go a long way toward reaching my goal,” he said.

If all the money comes through and insurance pays its part, Weston said, he hopes to be back in the classroom by the fall of next year.

“Everything takes time,” he said. “Getting all the paperwork approved takes time. It takes time to custom fit everything and it will take time for me to get used to using the prosthetics, but I am confident that it is going to happen. Again, I just want to get back in the classroom so I can help these kids. That’s all I want.”

In the meantime, Weston said, he has been studying ways he can use technology in the classroom.

“Obviously things are going to be different and I will have to change some things in order to get back into the classroom,” he said. “All I’m asking for is the opportunity.”